Rs 30 cr to be spent on 3-laning of PAP flyover

Deepkamal Kaur

Tribune News Service

Jalandhar, February 26

Commuters heading towards Amritsar or Pathankot from the city are likely to face traffic snarls for another one year.

The tender related to three-laning of PAP flyover has been cleared after financial and technical bids were opened by the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI). The work has been allotted to a private firm (KRC) for an amount of Rs 30 crore. It would take around one-and-a-half-month to commence the work as the administration first needs to get the electricity lines removed from outside the office of the Bhakra Beas Management Board (BBMB). No land would be acquired for the purpose of three-laning of the flyover.

At present, commuters heading from city to Amritsar/Pathankot need to take a treacherous detour of 3.5 km via Rama Mandi. Those coming from Ludhiana need to take a U-turn, which gets risky due to heavy movement of traffic throughout the day.

Inaugurated in Feb 2019

The PAP flyover was inaugurated in February 2019, but it had to be closed within a day as four accidents had taken place on the first day itself.

It was witnessed that three lanes of traffic, including one from Jalandhar and two from Ludhiana were merging into two (towards Amritsar). This was the point where vehicles were colliding.

The technical defect could not be visualised by experts of the NHAI before its launch and discussion went on during meetings and the site visits by experts and the district administration.

Various alternate methods were planned, but three-laning of the flyover from the site where Jalandhar lane merged seemed to be the only workable option.

Yashpal, Project Director, NHAI, “The work is expected to be completed within a year. There is a section where the Indian Railways come into the play and slowing down of railway traffic is expected. Thus, it will take a little longer.”