Jagadhri-Paonta Sahib NH cries for repairs, commuters harried

Shiv Kumar Sharma

Yamunanagar, March 5

Many stretches of the Jagadhri-Paonta Sahib national highway in Yamunanagar district are teeming with potholes.

This highway witnesses voluminous traffic due to mining zone situated in the Pratap Nagar area of the district.

The bad condition of the highway is causing accidents and inconveniencing commuters. This busy highway connects Haryana with Himachal Pradesh and Uttrakhand through Yamunanagar district.

According to information, several stretches of the national highway are in pathetic shape. A one-and-a-half kilometre stretch of this national highway outside the Manakpur Industrial Area, Phase II, is completely broken as the bitumen surface has almost worn out resulting in formation of large craters.

“This stretch is virtually without a road for the last one year. Potholes on this stretch are causing lots of accidents and loss of lives,” said Anil Garg, a daily commuter and an industrialist.

He further said potholes were also a source of air pollution in the area.

“Recently, a sign board has been installed on this highway stating therein that road is damaged, go slow. Is it enough? Has the problem of commuters been solved by installing a sign board?” said Anil Garg.

According to information, this completely worn-out stretch had been affecting smooth vehicular movement. Vehicles piled up due to the slow moving traffic on this particular stretch.

Several other stretches of this highway are also dotted with potholes threatening road users.

“Besides other goods carriers, this national highway caters to thousands of vehicles loaded with construction/mining material to and fro from the mining area every day. But, the commuting is becoming a nightmare along several stretches on the highway due to potholes. Motorists are meeting with fatal accidents after falling into potholes,” said Joginder Singh, a commuter.

Naresh Kumar, Junior Engineer of Public Works Department said the patch work, except the stretch of this national highway outside the Manakpur Industrial Area, Phase-II, would be started soon.

“The stretch of the national highway outside the Manakpur Industrial Area, Phase-II, has to be reconstructed. It is yet to be decided whether the National Highway Authority of India or the PWD will reconstruct this stretch,” said JE Naresh Kumar, who is looking after the repair work of this national highway in Yamunanagar.