Chief Minister’s Office, Kharar (Mohali), Punjab, December31: Punjab Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh on Thursday dedicated theChandigarh-Kharar elevated corridor to the citizens as a New Year gift, pavingthe way for further economic development of the region while easing theperpetual traffic congestion along the route.
The Chief Minister termed the corridor project - fromSector-39 roundabout (CH.0+000), Chandigarh to Khanpur (CH.10+185) – as thefulfilment of a long-pending need of the people of the region. With the openingof the third phase of the corridor on December 28, the project is now 96%complete, with the remaining (one side of the road at Khanpur) expected to becompleted by mid January 2021.
On the occasion, Captain Amarinder congratulated the civiladministration for ensuring peaceful acquisition of land and resettlement ofland owners, and also appreciated the National Highways Authority of India(NHAI) for the expeditious completion of the project, which had been extremelydelayed due to the bottlenecks created as a result of the previous Akali-BJPgovernment in the state.
When his government took over, it inherited the messy legacyof the erstwhile regime, in terms of failure to divert the traffic,non-shifting of high tension wires by the Electricity Board and non-vacation ofacquired structures by land owners due to non-payment of land compensationamount, along with multiple court cases and stay orders, said the ChiefMinister.
Captain Amarinder said his government started addressing thevarious problems, including getting Electricity Boardto shift the High Tensionlines, ensuring payment of 99% compensation for acquired land, as well asvacation and razing of all 50 acquired structures. Efficient legal team removedthe legal hurdles and got the stay orders vacated, while deployment of specialpolice teams under 8 Marshalls was also ensured for traffic diversion, headded. To enable the work to continue during the Covid lockdown, specialarrangements were made for labourers at the site, said the Chief Minister.
Notably, the project was started on June 9, 2016, and thefirst phase from Sector-39 roundabout-Verka Chowk to Balongi Underpass wasopened to the public on September 25, 2020; the 2nd Phase of Flyover (DesuMajra to Khanpur) towards Ludhiana on December 12, 2020, followed by the 3rdPhase from Daun to Desumajra on December 28, 2020.
Later, in an informal interaction with the media, the ChiefMinister thanked Union Minister Nitin Gadkari for undertaking this nationalhighway project in Punjab. To a questionabout other such national highway projects, Captain Amarinder said theKatra-Delhi 16-lane expressway and other projects were in the pipeline with theland acquisition process underway. He also said that Rs 27 crore had beensanctioned for the state highway project at Landran.
Earlier, speaking at the event, Cabinet Minister BalbirSingh Sidhu who is MLA from Mohali, said that the project, comprising 3.2 KMlong six lane elevated corridor supported over single pier, 3 underpasses(Balongi, Daun and Airport Road), and major interchange at Khanpur connectingto Ludhiana and Ropar road, would benefit a large number of commuters. It wouldbring to an end the frequent traffic snarls which used to cause lot ofinconvenience and hardship to the people. Those travelling daily to and from thetricity would be particularly benefitted, he added.
Prominent among others who were present on theoccasion were former Minister JagmohanSingh Kang, Chairman Market Committee Kharar Harkesh Chand Sharma MachhliKalan, IG Ropar Range Amit Prasad, ADC (G) Mohali Aashika Jain, SSP MohaliSatinder Singh and SDM Kharar Himanshu Jain.