NHAI chief gives nod to pending projects
Ludhiana, September 2
The National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) Chairman Santosh Kumar Yadav on Monday gave nod to various pending projects in Ludhiana on the request of Rajya Sabha MP Sanjeev Arora.
The AAP member in the Upper House from Punjab informed Yadav that a substantial portion, approximately 92.06 per cent, of the required land for the construction of the Southern Bypass Greenfield highway project had already been handed over to the NHAI.
Assuring to get the project cleared at the NHAI meeting scheduled for September 16, the Chairman said the re-tendering of the project would be done to take it up under the National Highway Original (NHO) works of the NHAI.
The legislator told Yadav that the land acquisition process of a 30-km stretch for the Ludhiana- Ropar Greenfield highway project package-1 had been completed and handed over to the NHAI. He requested the Chairman’s immediate attention to the matter and urged him to instruct the officials concerned to expedite the commencement of construction work by the contractors. The Chairman instructed his staff to ask the contractor to start work immediately even if the contract time had elapsed.
Additionally, Arora highlighted the issues brought up by AAP MLAs from Ludhiana Daljit Singh Grewal and Madan Lal Bagga regarding the construction of vehicular underpasses (VUPs) at several locations on Jalandhar bypass, including Subhash Nagar to Sunder Nagar chowk, Kailash Nagar chowk, Kakowal chowk-Shekhewal, Kali-Bindra Colony, Pringle Ground, and Jassian Road to Guruhar Rai Nagar crossing.
On this, the NHAI Chairman instructed his staff that these should be taken care of by the Regional Officer and should be taken care of immediately for these were accident-prone sites termed ‘black spots’. However, he warned commuters would have to face some inconvenience during the time of construction.
The MP also apprised the Chairman of the challenges faced by commuters and industry due to the deteriorating condition of the service road from Dhandari Kalan side to Sherpur chowk towards Avon Cycles campus. He informed Yadav that the underpass at Dhandari bridge was narrow and, due to waterlogging, it was inoperable, severely impacting the operations of industries, the movement of pedestrians, and the overall traffic flow in the vicinity.
Yadav said the contract for new drainage with the latest technology had already been awarded and the contractor would be pushed to get it finished no later than December.
“The NHAI Chairman took cognisance of all the issues raised by me and instructed Member Technical Alok Deepankar and Punjab CGM Prashant Khodaskar to address them at the earliest,” the MP said, adding that building more roads not only connected cities but also brought economic development to the region.
