Shimla: Secretary NHAI has reached Himachal from the center to take stock of the condition of the National Highway in Himachal. Secretary NHAI has assured that efforts will be made to restore the traffic between Kullu and Manali on the Kiratpur-Manali four-lane road in the next 48 hours.
For this, deployment of necessary machinery and staff has been ensured. All possible efforts are also being made to open other national highways. He has also held a meeting with PWD Minister Vikramaditya Singh on the situation in Himachal.
NHAI officials were also present in this meeting. After the meeting, Public Works Minister Vikramaditya Singh said that the rains have caused a lot of damage to other roads including national highways.
It is the effort of the state government and the department that all the closed highways and main roads should be restored soon. He said that he has also spoken to Union Road Transport Minister Nitin Gadkari for the restoration of national highways.
The NHAI secretary has been sent by the Center to take stock of the situation. During the meeting, a detailed discussion was held on the damage caused to the Kiratpur-Manali four-lane National Highway.
Authority officials informed that this highway has suffered maximum damage between Raison and Manali. The work of opening this route for all types of vehicles is going on on a war footing.
Public Works Minister said that the flood in Beas river has crossed the previous maximum point and in such a situation, NHAI should consider increasing the height of the National Highway in this area so that such incidents can be avoided in the future.
On this, NHAI assured to conduct a detailed study in collaboration with IIT Roorkee. He also directed to make the traffic smooth on the Shimla-Kalka four-lane road.
The authority informed that at present single-lane traffic is being operated on this route and soon double-lane traffic will be restored from here. He also directed to arrange for an alternative route and to restore this route soon due to damage to the Madanwala bridge on the Pinjore-Baddi-Nalagarh road.
The situation of Chakki bridge on the Pathankot-Mandi highway was also discussed in the meeting. Vikramaditya instructed to take necessary steps for its repair. (hdm)