Sultanpur road choked for hours

LUCKNOW: Monday gave a harrowing time to long distance commuters as a portion of the Lucknow-Sultanpur highway got washed away in the downpour leading to massive jam on the stretch. As per National Highway Authority of India, complete restoration of the stretch will take four to five days.
City bound motorists from Varanasi, Sultanpur, Rae Bareli, Amethi, Haidergarh among other areas, had to take alternative routes and their journey was extended by 80 to 120 km to reach or depart from Lucknow.
The affected road stretch lies between Inhauna and Haidergarh and motorists had to take state highway 31 that passes through Loni Katra and ends up at Faizabad road in Barabanki. As per reports, the portion was washed away on the intervening night and the road stretch caved in.
Hundreds of motorists were stuck since morning and police put up diversions around noon. The load on the highway kept building up till 1.30pm. A NHAI officer stated, "The stretch near Haidergarh on the highway was built by state government. It is an old road and had been taken over by us only last year."
NHAI said the road caved in due to excessive water logging in the area. The officer added, "From the time we took over, no construction work had been carried out. The highway has to be converted into four-lane from existing two-lane but due to litigation work got delayed. We are in the process of finalising state support agreement and waiting for forest clearance to commence the work."
NHAI, however, appointed a team to conduct technical analysis of the reason that led to the collapse of the road portion and were making efforts to repair it for the time being. The officer added that it might take four to five days for complete repairs to enable resumption of normal traffic movement.