Work on Palampur-Padhar road stretch hangs fire for 3 years

Ravinder Sood

Palampur, May 12

The work to widen the Palampur-Padhar (Mandi district) stretch of the Pathankot-Mandi highway four-lane project is hanging fire for the past three years as the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) is yet to acquire land for it.

NHAI: Waiting for project report

We are waiting for the project report. The NHAI has accepted the Chief Minister’s request but land acquisition is not possible without the project report. Therefore, the construction of this part of the highway has been delayed. The NHAI is likely to get the project report in June. Only then the process of land acquisition and calling of global bids will start. Vikas Surjewala, Project Director, NHAI

Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu had met Union Road Transport Minister Nitin Gadkari in this regard but no headway has been made. The work on the remaining four phases between Pathankot and Palampur is in progress and is likely to be completed in the next two years.

The phase-V of the highway project between Padhar and Bijni (Mandi) has also been cleared by the Environment Ministry and global bids have been finalised.

Information gathered by The Tribune revealed that earlier there was a proposal for the construction of a two-lane highway between Palampur and Mandi. The NHAI accordingly appointed a consultant, who also prepared a project report for a two-lane highway. The previous Jai Ram Thakur government had also agreed to a two-lane highway between Palampur and Mandi.

Later, with the change of government in Himachal in December 2022, the new Chief Minister, Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu, opposed the construction of two-lane highways in the state. He met Union Minister Nitin Gadkari and demanded the construction of a four-lane highway in the state keeping in view the high volume of traffic during the tourist season.

Later, on the request of the Chief Minister, the NHAI again appointed a new consultant for preparing a fresh project report for the construction of a four-lane highway. Almost one year has passed but neither the NHAI had received the new project report nor could it start land acquisition, resulting in delay in the execution of the project.

Vikas Surjewala, Project Director, NHAI, said that they were waiting for the project report. He added that in principle, the NHAI had accepted the request of the Chief Minister. He said without the project report, land acquisition was not possible. Therefore, the construction of this part of the highway has been delayed.

He said that the NHAI was likely to get the project report in June. Only then, the process for land acquisition and calling global bids would begin. He said secondly, the NHAI was yet to finalise the alignment of the highway as matter was pending with the higher authorities in New Delhi. Only then, the process for acquiring land would be started.