5 months past deadline, widening of NH-709A not over in Karnal

Parveen Arora

Karnal, July 13

Five months past the deadline, widening work of the Karnal-Meerut road on National Highway 709A is still pending.

The construction agency has sought from the authorities concerned an extension till July for the completion of the work.

Six-laning to be done

• Under the project, a 2.8-km six-lane road between Devi Lal Chowk and Karnal Co-operative Sugar Mill is to be laid
• Besides, the road from the sugar mill to Haryana-UP border will be four-laned; it will be widened to 20 metres from 10 metres

The authorities are hopeful that the work would be completed by the end of July.

“We are hopeful that the work will be completed by July if the weather condition allows and hence, an extension in the deadline has been sought from the government. The final approval of the extension is yet to be received,” Sajjan Singh, Executive Engineer (XEN), Provincial Division 2, PWD (B&R) National Highway, Jind, said.

Final approval yet to be received

We are hopeful that the work will be completed by July-end if the weather condition allows and hence, an extension has been sought from the government. We are yet to get the final approval for the extension. —Sajjan Singh, Executive engineer, Provincial division 2, PWD (b&r) NH, Jind

With the aim to provide relief to commuters, Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar had announced the widening of the road in January 2018.

The foundation stone for the widening of the 14.4-km-long stretch from Tau Devi Lal Chowk to the Haryana-UP border was laid by the Chief Minister on August 17, 2020. The deadline was fixed at February 16, 2022.

The project costs around Rs 105 crore.

“Under the project, a six-lane road between Devi Lal Chowk and Karnal Co-operative Sugar Mill, which is around 2.8 km, is to be laid, whereas the road from the sugar mill to Haryana-UP border will be four-laned and is to be extended to 20 metres from 10 metres,” Atul Ailawadhi, Junior Engineer, Provincial Sub-Division 2, PWD (B&R) National Highway, Karnal, said.

The authorities said the work got delayed due to delay in clearance of environment norms, axing of trees and change of scope of work among other reasons.

At present, one side of the road up to the Haryana-UP border from Tau Devi Lal Chowk is almost complete, while work on the other side of road is going on.

“We have completed one side of the road and carpeting work on the other is going on. We will complete it by of July,” the Junior Engineer added.

The works of construction of a service road near the Karnal Co-operative Sugar Mill, a service road for an underpass near Manglora, shifting of alignment for a new bridge on the Yamuna and construction of crash barriers along the solid waste management plant in Shekhpura were added in the project later, owing to which, an extension in the deadline was required,” the Junior Engineer added.