Indian Express 13.01.2010
Encroachments on NH-21 will be removed soon, says Mohali DC
Also revives plan to construct Kharar bypass
Taking cognizance of the encroachments on the Mohali-Kharar stretch of National Highway-21, which has assumed the distinction of “killer highway” in the view of the large number of road accidents, Mohali Deputy Commissioner Prabhjot Singh Mand has asked the officials of departments concerned to take effective steps to free the highway from encroachment.
In its series on encroachments published recently, the Chandigarh Newsline had highlighted that how temporary and permanent structures have become a common sight on both sides of the highway, which connects Chandigarh with major parts of Punjab, Himachal Pradesh and Jammu and Kashmir.
Chairing a special meeting of the officials here today, the DC directed the district officials of Public Works Department (PWD), Central Works Division and Forest department to act jointly to decide the cases of highway encroachments, which were lying pending in the courts since long, so that all such encroachments existing in the garb of litigation could also be removed
Mand also took serious note of the obstructions delaying the ongoing work to four-lane a stretch of NH-21 from Desumajra to Kharar. While the Forest department officials were asked to remove the trees standing in the way of the project, the Punjab State Electricity Board (PSEB) authorities were pulled up for delay in shifting the electricity poles and overhead electricity wires existing in the area.
The work to four-lane the 4.14-km NH-21 stretch has been undertaken at a cost of Rs 12.49 crore.
The DC also discussed the plan to revive the construction of a bypass in Kharar to decongest the NH-21 stretch passing through the township. He instructed District Town Planner Gurpreet Singh to prepare the drawings of the bypass project and send it to the state government for approval.
While a 3-km stretch of the highway between Desumajra and Mohali Bridge had been four-laned in 2002, no such work has carried out on the remaining four-km stretch in Kharar. Instead, a bypass was mooted to divert the long-route traffic from Desumajra to Khanpur. However, the project, costing over Rs 30 crore, was shelved after former Kharar MLA Bir Devinder Singh objected to the acquisition of land required for it in 2003.
In November 2006, the state government had again approved a four-lane bypass to decongest the stretch. The revived bypass project, involving approximate expenditure of Rs 120 crore, was planned from Sector 39 in Chandigarh to connect NH-21 near Khanpur village in Kharar municipal limits. The revived bypass was planned to run on a 20-km-long four-laned road.
Taking note of traffic congestion at Kharar bus stand chowk, Mand directed the PWD Central Works Division officials to install traffic lights or make some other arrangement for effective management and free flow of vehicular traffic passing through bus stand chowk in Kharar.