Unlit, NH-1A turns deadly in Jalandhar

Rachna Khaira

Tribune News Service

Jalandhar, June 15

The six-laning project on National Highway 1A has turned ‘deadly’ at Jalandhar — due to the absence of streetlights here — as over 35 persons have died in various accidents since January. Work on the project from Panipat to Jalandhar began in 2009.

On Tuesday night, two persons died near National Institute of Technology (NIT) on the outskirts of the city.

While 15 people reportedly died in the area falling under police division 8 since January, six died in police division 1 area. Around 10 people lost their lives in the Rama Mandi area and over a dozen died in various accidents on NH-1A passing through Maqsudan PS area. Also, seven persons reportedly died on NH-1A in Goraya this year.

The majority of accidents took place on the ‘killer stretch’ between PAP Chowk and NIT campus.

Though the area falls inside municipal limits, it does not have streetlights till date. The Municipal Corporation of Jalandhar (MCJ) had once installed streetlights, but those were reportedly not functional for the past many years.

With NHAI planning to install streetlights in the ongoing six-laning project between Panipat and Jalandhar, the civic body took out its streetlight poles few months back and re-installed them in various wards.

As a result, most of the accidents happen at night. The first death this year was reported on January 4 when an unidentified person was hit by a moving vehicle. He died on the spot. On April 3, a nine-year-old girl and her father died after being hit by some vehicle. On March 14, 23-year-old Lucky met with an accident. His body was run over by vehicles all night as drivers couldn’t spot it due to the darkness.

Deputy Commissioner KK Yadav said a major reason for the rise in accidents was the delay in the completion of the project. “We had to take out our streetlights to pave the way for NHAI to install their own. Though the authority said that all the lights would be made operational soon, I haven’t checked the situation on the ground,” said Yadav. He said that he would take up the matter with NHAI soon.

Blaming motorists, Vipin Kumar, Manager Projects, NHAI, said most accidents happened due to drunken driving or over-speeding. As far as streetlights are concerned, Kumar said that those would be made operational soon. He said that the project was expected to be completed by December.