No arterial roads, tourists, locals suffer on Solan national highway

Ambika Sharma

Solan, February 15

The absence of arterial roads to divert traffic from Solan to Kaithlighat during traffic jams worsens the situation. It being a busy highway, vehicles queue up within no time whenever debris from the excavated hill falls on the road. Three or four spots are vulnerable to landslides owing to the fragile strata.

4 spots vulnerable to landslips

• Being a busy highway, vehicles queue up within no time whenever debris from the excavated hill falls on the road
• Three or four spots are vulnerable to landslides owing to the fragile strata
• Residents rue that arterial routes should have been worked out before the four-laning work had begun
• This would have helped in diverting traffic

A long traffic jam was visible on Sunday at Mansar Salogra village on the Solan-Kandaghat section of the highway disrupting traffic for nearly an hour.

Residents rued that arterial routes should have been worked out before the four-laning work had begun. This would have helped in diverting traffic.

SDM, Solan, Ajay Yadav said three or four locations had been identified from Solan to Kandaghat where debris fell, disrupting traffic. Machinery was kept ready to meet such eventualities to ensure minimal disruption to traffic.

“The company executing the four-laning work has been directed to ensure that debris is cleared within 10 to 15 minutes. About 80 per cent of this stretch had been four-laned while the problem of landslides are occurring on the remaining stretch,” added the SDM.

Poor planning has aggravated the problem as little is done to address this issue. The PWD had planned to strengthen three arterial roads to provide smooth passage to vehicles, while the work on the Parwanoo-Solan section was underway.

Funds worth Rs 24 crore were provided by the NHAI for the arterial roads — 29.4-km Parwanoo-Jangeshu-Kasauli-Dharampur road, 13-km Kamli-Bhojnagar road; and 14-km Chakki-Bhojnagar road.

The poor execution delayed the work beyond its designated period of one year and the NHAI did not approve the PWD’’s proposal of strengthening any arterial road for subsequent four-laning work on the Solan-Kaithlighat section.

Executive Engineer, PWD, Solan, Arvind Sharma said no funds had been provided for the upkeep of any arterial route though the Chambaghat-Basal link road could be used to divert traffic in case of a traffic jam.