A meeting of a high-powered committee to be chaired by Vidhan Sabha Speaker Kuldeep Pathania will be held here on Thursday to resolve issues concerning works being undertaken by the National Highway Authority (NHAI) in Himachal.
Speaker said that in view of the issues regarding NHAI road projects being raised repeatedly by the MLAs in the Vidhan Sabha, he had convened a meeting of a high-powered committee tomorrow.
“The directions to be issued under various enactments will be done after the meeting. Hopefully, we will be able to address issues raised by legislators and provide relief to people,” Pathania said.
Pathania said senior functionaries of NHAI, the Public Works department; the Chief Secretary and the Director General of Police (DGP) will attend the meeting.
Public Works Minister Vikramaditya Singh pointed out that, in view of NHAI being a Government of India undertaking, the state government has no control over it, even though information is being sought from them from time to time. He added that NHAI was presently working on 800 km of road construction projects in Himachal.
“We are working in close coordination with NHAI, but road connectivity, wherever there are vulnerable sections, is getting disrupted due to landslides. It is a matter of concern that it is taking 12 hours to travel between Kullu-Mandi, which is adversely hitting farmers, fruit and flower growers,” the minister said.
He said maximum damage to roads and bridges in the last three days had caused inconvenience and that 912 machines, including JCBs, bulldozers, and robot machines, had been deployed to restore vehicular movement.
The PWD Minister said that in view of the road section between Pandoh-Kullu getting disrupted frequently, two alternate routes from Chail Chowk and Kataula are being widened, for which NHAI has provided Rs 9 crore and Rs 11 crore.
“We have to ensure the safety of not just the tourists but also protect the interests of the local people. With resilience and joint efforts, we will provide relief and address all these issues, even though the PWD has suffered Rs 1444 crore in losses in the current monsoon season,” he said.
It was Naina Devi MLA Randhir Sharma who raised the issue of the need for proper traffic management and diversion of traffic on blocked roads due to landslides across the state during Zero Hour.
“In the absence of proper traffic management and timely information, hundreds of vehicles queue up on roads which are blocked. Prior information and traffic diversion by the police can help regulate traffic and avoid inconvenience to commuters,” said Sharma.
Sharma said toll tax must also not be charged on these four lanes, which have suffered huge damage.
