Four-laning stuck in the slow lane

Rajmeet Singh

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, September 11

The much-awaited four-laning project of the 215-km-long Zirakpur-Bathinda highway is set to miss the February 2017 deadline when the state Assembly elections are also scheduled.

Being taken up in seven parts, the project has been divided into two sections – Bathinda-Patiala and Patiala-Zirakpur. Already delayed by four years, the cost of the project has risen from Rs2,200 crore to Rs2,900 crore.

A reality check on its progress revealed that roads are still dug up at many places, especially on the section between Bathinda and Sangrur, forcing the traffic to move at a snail’s pace. At many places, the work on flyovers and service roads is far from over, particularly near Bathinda, Rampura Phul, Tapa, Barnala and Bhawanigarh.

Officials supervising the projects maintain that due to delay in the allotment of the tenders last year, the deadline of six of the seven parts of the project has been fixed as February 2017. But for the four-laning of the Tapa-Bathinda section, June 2017 is the deadline.

The work on laying the foundation of flyovers at Rose Garden chowk and Bibiwala chowk in Bathinda city is in its initial stages. Moving out of the city, one finds that the work on laying the concrete surface is partially complete on one side of the dual carriageway passing through the cantonment area up to marble market near Bhucho Mandi.

Between Lehra Mohabbat and Rampura Phul, the work on laying the concrete surface is complete partially. In Rampura Phul, the roads are dug up as the work of laying the foundation for the flyovers is underway.

Gurcharan Singh, a farmer of Maur Nabha village, while expressing hope that the project would be completed soon, demanded that entry and exit points should be provided to all villages otherwise villagers would move on the wrong side leading to accidents.

Similarly in Barnala city, road diversions due to under-construction flyovers lead to traffic chaos. Moving from Barnala towards Dhanola, one finds that many sections are lying dug up, forcing the traffic to change the lanes frequently. However, work on the 4-km-long Dhanola bypass is underway at a fast pace. Similarly, work on the Sangrur bypass is in progress.

Passing through Bhawanigarh town, you are again greeted by dug-up roads as the work on service roads is underway and steel railing is being erected between the service lanes and the main road. Kashmir Singh, who runs a tea shop along the road in Bhawanigarh, complains of frequent traffic snarls due to slow progress of work.

Between Sangrur and Patiala, the work of laying the concrete slabs on one side and coal tar surface on the other side of the dual carriageway is complete at several places till Patiala. But there are traffic diversions due to incomplete sections.

It may take a few more months to complete the work on the Patiala bypass as work on constructing the flyover near Urban Estate is far from over. Similarly, the construction of an underpass in front of Punjabi University, Patiala, and a flyover at Bahadurgarh is nowhere near completion.