A ‘perfect’ stretch for mishaps to happen

Ravi Dhaliwal

Tribune News Service

Gurdaspur, October 28

When Batala physician Dr Satnam Singh Nijjar drove from Gurdaspur to Sri Hargobindpur on Monday to supervise a project being undertaken by the Gurdaspur Planning Board, of which he is the Chairman, he was dumbfounded to see the deplorable condition of the 40.38km-long stretch of road. The doctor did not mince words when he termed the state highway as a “virtual minefield.”

His claim is corroborated by hundreds of commuters. Many end up saying that they are lucky to reach their destination “with their lives and limbs intact.” The conditions here are ‘perfect’ for accidents to occur. In a majority of the cases, vehicles too are extensively damaged.

Harinder Singh Verka, a regular commuter, said he often wonders whether he was actually driving in one big pothole or on the road itself.

Dr Nijjar said he tried to count the number of points where re-carpeting needs to be done but lost the game after driving for just 500 metres. “A one-hour journey under normal circumstances from Gurdaspur till Sri Hargobindpur has been converted into a three-hour one. The passage has deteriorated to the level where it has become really dangerous to drive on. Potholes, uneven surfaces and cracks are common. The situation gets from bad to worse during the monsoons,” said the doctor.

With the Gurdaspur Planning Board being responsible for monitoring funds, Dr Nijjar maintained that he had taken up the cause with officials concerned in his capacity as its Chairman.

“Officials are seized of the matter. A sum of Rs 5 crore was earmarked by the state government as early as March. However, Covid struck and with it things got stuck. Punjab government has now redrawn its plans following which Rs 5 crore will be given to the department from the Central Road Fund (CRF) scheme,” he added

The CRF is a non-lapsable fund created under the Central Road Fund act, 2000. It is collected from the tax imposed by the union government on the consumption of petrol and diesel and is used to develop and maintain national and state highways.

PWD Executive Engineer (XEN) Manmohan Singh said that tenders had been floated and “things will be finalised soon.”

Important landmarks, including the famed Baba Aya Singh Riarki College for Girls, are located on this throroughfare due to which its strategic importance increases manifold. The Chadha sugar mills branches off from Harchowal township. This is a sugarcane rich area and agriculturists use this particular stretch to transport their produce to the mills from nearby villages.

The Chotta Ghallughara Martyrs Memorial, constructed in memory of 11,000 Sikhs killed by Mughal troops in 1746 and which attracts hundreds of devotees every day, is barely 3 km away from the highway.

Truckers often take long detours while owners of passenger buses have suspended their operations several times in the past.

“Murphy’s law, which states that when things get bad, they tend to get worse, is at play here. Things can improve only and only if this Murphy man is banished from the road,” said a senior PWD officer engaged in the tendering process.