Narrow roads hit fire tenders’ movement

Ambika Sharma

Tribune News Service

Solan, May 21

Narrow congested roads at the Garkhal junction acted as a major impediment for the smooth movement of fire tenders which were rushing to Jubber to douse a forest fire last evening.

Since a large number of trucks from the Baddi-Barotiwala-Nalagarh industrial area ply on the Patta Mehlog-Band-Garkhal route, the Garkhal junction remains busy with traffic. The road also witnesses heavy traffic on weekends owing to a large influx of tourists. Traffic jams are routine even in the late evenings on this road.

Though the first fire tender managed to rush to the site around 9 pm, three others had been stuck at the Garkhal junction for quite sometime. These fire tenders, including two from the Air Force Station at Kasauli, had reached there around 8:50 pm but it took more them than 20 minutes to move towards the affected site. With ribbon-shaped development of buildings on both sides of the road, the fire tenders had a tough time in negotiating the curves and reaching the affected side, despite the help of the locals, who tried to control the movement of traffic.

DSP Parwanoo Pramod Chauhan said the issue had been brought to the notice of the authorities. He said despite assigning adequate staff on traffic duty on weekends, the traffic management was becoming difficult as the roads were too narrow to hold the excessive traffic.