Pathankot-Mandi road project altered for early completion

Ravinder Sood

Palampur, September 20

The National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) has made various changes in its original detailed project report (DPR) of the 219-km strategic Pathankot-Mandi road widening project, paving the way for its early execution.

The project that links Pathankot with Leh and Ladakh has been hanging fire for the past two years. Considering the defence requirements, the Centre wants to complete it at the earliest. The new Project Director has already joined duty at Palampur.

A spokesman for the NHAI told The Tribune here that major changes had been made in the phase IV and phase V of the project, which is being executed in five phases between Pathankot and Mandi.

“As per the original DPR, there was a proposal to construct a four-lane highway up to Mandi. Now, the NHAI has decided to construct four lanes only in its first three phases between Pathankot, Palampur, Baijnath and Chauntra while in the remaining two phases between Chauntra and Mandi, there will be only two lanes to avoid environmental degradation, and cutting of hills, as the area has a difficult topography comprising high mountains and is prone to landslides,” he added.

Official sources said that the DPR prepared by Joint Ventures and Infrastructure Casta Limited, a private company, in 2016 would remain the same in the first 154-km section and would only be amended in the last 65 km falling in Mandi district.

The NHAI has laid special stress on minimum cutting of hills, avoiding inconvenience to people residing along the highway and also avoiding dislocation of business establishments. The distance between Pathankot and Mandi would reduce from 219 km to 171 km when the four-lane road is completed. All major towns of Kangra district such as Nurpur, Mattor, Nagrota Bagwan, Palampur, Maranda, Baijnath, Paprola and Jogindernagar have been bypassed in the new project.

The Pathankot-Mandi highway is one of the strategically important road in the country, as it links Pathankot with Leh via Manali.