Elevated road 8-km stretch complete, rest 5 km by June

Tribune News Service

Nitin Jain

Ludhiana, March 7

The pace of ongoing work to construct the much-awaited partially-access controlled four-lane elevated highway corridor in Ludhiana has doubled with more men and machinery put on the job, the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) has claimed.

This was evident from the fact that the progress of the work achieved during February was almost double than the work done during January, officials have said.

The development assumes significance as the work on one of the busiest arteries of the maximum city had already missed a deadline of completion in April, 2020. Started in October, 2017, the construction of a 12.95-km-long stretch between the busy Samrala Chowk and Ludhiana municipal limits on National Highway-95, is now scheduled to complete in June this year.

With over 84 per cent of the work already done, the Rs 756.27-crore Central project is all set to be ready by mid of this year.

Sharing details, the NHAI Project Director, Krishan Sachdeva, told The Tribune, here on Monday, that 7.724-km-stretch of the project has already been completed while the work to construct the remaining 4.928-km-stretch has been put on fast track to meet the completion deadline.

He divulged that only wing erection was pending on the under-construction 0.778-km-long stretch, overlaying was in the process on another 2.742-km-stretch, and some elements were under completion on next 0.649-km-stretch while only 0.649-km-stretch of the remaining project was in the process of taking off shortly.

Sachdeva disclosed that 75 men, 4 cranes, 2 overhead gantry, a batch-mix plant, 4 hydra and 2 transit mixers had been pressed into service to further escalate the pace of the ongoing work.

Meanwhile, the Rajya Sabha MP from Ludhiana, Sanjeev Arora, who had been constantly pushing for the completion of the ongoing NHAI projects, reviewed the progress of the ongoing work on the project with the team of officials concerned, led by the NHAI Project Director.

The NHAI officials told Arora that 3.5 to 4 concrete spans (each span measuring 28.5 meters) were placed every month till January but 6.4 concrete spans were placed in the month of February, which was almost double the previous progress keeping in view the less number of days in February.

“NHAI team is working very hard and seriously day and night. Even the NHAI has made arrangements for additional machinery to carry on the construction work without any interruption, if the existing machinery gets faulty,” he expressed.

Arora, who had recently called on the NHAI Chairman Santosh Kumar Yadav to press for the early completion of the project, said he has been informed by Sachdeva that there would be four slip roads — one each near Verka Plant, PAU, Bhai Bala Chowk, and Hotel Park Plaza — on the elevated highway. There would also be a provision for the vehicular traffic to move towards the bus stand and Shri Durga Mata Mandir, the MP was further apprised.

The Rajya Sabha member, along with the NHAI team, also took a round of the already constructed stretch of the elevated highway from the beginning point to Verka milk plant in his vehicle at the maximum permissible speed limit of 80 kmph and found the work and drive satisfactory.

He said the NHAI officials have also made an appeal to the general public to follow guidelines of the NHAI and not to exceed the speed of their vehicles above the permissible limit of 80 kmph on elevated highway.

“I have observed that all norms with regard to the quality standards are being strictly followed by the NHAI in completing this project,” Arora expressed, while patting the back of the official machinery for putting in their best efforts to bring the project to the advanced stage of completion.

To ensure uninterrupted flow of vehicles

The NH-95 section passing through Ludhiana city was being constructed on the EPC mode under the NHDP Phase IV.

The elevated highway, connecting Samrala Chowk to Ludhiana municipal limit till Ferozepur road on NH-05 in the city, will be six-lane from Bharat Nagar to municipal limits with two loops — one towards railway station and another towards ISBT.

The project entails six ramps — 3 each at exit and entry points, and a flyover at Cheema Chowk with 320-meter length, which has already been completed and opened for traffic by the then NHAI chairman Sukhbir Singh Sandhu here in February last.

The under-construction elevated highway will provide uninterrupted flow of traffic to several government offices, including Mini Secretariat, Commissioner of Police office, head post office and major business establishments.

Even as the construction work on this project had commenced on October 10, 2017, it could not be accelerated due to existing trees, electricity supply lines of 11, 66, and 220-KV, and presence of sewer and water supply lines at several locations.

While the Cheema Chowk flyover was completed and opened to traffic in December, 2020, the work from 9.5-km to 12.95-km, including two ramps on either side for exit and entry, will be completed shortly.

The work on the remaining portion of the project from Bharat Nagar to canal will be completed by June.

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