Work on Chandigarh-Kharar flyover road likely to get delayed

With no diversion of traffic under the Chandigarh-Kharar flyover, the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) on Monday said the construction of the road under the flyover is likely to get delayed by a week.

One of the officials of NHAI, on the condition of anonymity, said multiple requests were made to the district administration to divert traffic on the route that was holding up the construction work but in vain. “We are expecting a delay of around six days in the construction of the road,” he said. The official further said the matter was recently taken up with the administration in a meeting held on August 9, where the officials agreed to the diversion of traffic as per requirement.

 During the meeting, deputy commissioner (DC) Girish Dayalan directed NHAI and a private firm Larsen and Toubro (L&T) to make the stretch motorable with 15 days. On August 2, NHAI had also complained about the diversion of traffic as it was holding up the construction work of the ongoing flyover.       

Recently in a response to an RTI plea filed on July 10 to know the number of heavy vehicles challaned for violating the ban on their entry under the Chandigarh-Kharar flyover, the Mohali police in their reply said they hadn’t found any heavy vehicle plying on the stretch from January till June, hence, no challan was issued.

In the  RTI reply, Mohali senior superintendent of police (SSP) Kuldeep Singh Chahal had said, “No heavy vehicles plied under the Chandigarh-Kharar flyover and we haven’t issued any challan from January till June.”

Kharar sub-divisional magistrate (SDM) Vinod Kumar Bansal denied the allegations. “We have been giving the diversions wherever they need it to facilitate the construction of the road. I have been personally visiting the spot and monitoring the work,” he said.     

BAN NOT ENFORCED

On January 4, Bansal had ordered that the road remained closed for heavy vehicles — canters, trucks, tippers, and tractor-trailers from 7am to 8pm, barring ambulances, passenger buses and school and college buses — which have to ply on a dedicated lane. The decision on the closing the stretch was made to facilitate the construction of the elevated the Chandigarh- Kharar highway and the ongoing flyover work.

The administration had banned entry of heavy vehicles from Gopal Sweets chowk towards Khanpur Chowk on the National Highway 21 and from Khanpur Chowk to Swaraj Factory on the Landran-Kharar road. Interestingly, the administration had banned entry of all vehicles from Khanpur Chowk towards Gopal Sweets Chowk and from Kharar bus stand junction to Khanpur Chowk, even as it didn’t give any option of diversion to the commuters.

The then Mohali deputy commissioner (DC) Gurpreet Kaur Sapra had also banned the movement of heavy vehicles on the stretch from 10pm to 6am in October last year.

NHAI in 2015 had handed over the ₹369-crore project to Larsen and Toubro to streamline the movement of 50,000 vehicles on the busy road daily. Unable to meet the deadline, the firm had sought traffic free road for speeding up the work. The district authorities had taken up the matter with the state government, after which a panel was formed to find a solution but nothing was done till date.