20 yrs on, Mandi-Hamirpur highway awaits upgrade

Dinesh Kanwar

Hamirpur, November 11

Even after 20 years, the National Highway-03 (earlier-NH-70), crossing through the district, is yet to see any upgrade on the ground. The road, starting from Jalandhar to Mandi via Hamirpur, Dharampur and Kotli, was declared the national highway in 1999 when Atal Bihari Vajpayee was the Prime Minister and Prem Kumar Dhumal was the Chief Minister of the state.

As long as 60-km stretch falls in Mandi and about 30 km portion comes in Hamirpur. Despite linking Sameerpur, the village of former Chief Minister, and Kotli village of Sukh Ram, Political Adviser to then CM, there is hardly any development.

The road condition between Hamirpur and Awah Devi is the worst. The villagers are forced to live in dust and mud during dry and rainy seasons.

Rajeev Kumar, a resident of a village near Bari Mandir, said people had requested the authorities, but they had turned deaf ears to their plight. Suresh Kumar from Awah Devi said people were happy when the road was declared NH as this would reduce the distance to the district headquarters.

Kamlesh, another woman from village near Tauni Devi, said she was hopeful that the road would be widened after Anurag Thakur had become the Union minister. He had assured people that the NH should be his priority.

Promod Kashyap, Executive Engineer of the NH division, said the demarcation of the road for widening had been done and pillars were fixed to acquire the land. A tender had been awarded to improve the stretch between Hamirpur and Sameerpur but the process to acquire land and widening of the NH would take time, he added.