7 yrs on, Mohali’s ring road project stuck in govt maze
MOHALI: Hanging fire for nearly seven years now, the construction of the 200-ft wide, six-lane ring road project, which was to decongest Zirakpur by providing an alternative route to the Shimla-bound traffic incoming from Ambala, is now stuck in a bureaucratic maze.
The National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) has asked Greater Mohali Area Development Authority (GMADA) to transfer the 100 acres, which they have already acquired, but GMADA is yet to take a decision on it.
The 8-kilometre road will originate from McDonald’s on the Ambala-Zirakpur highway, pass through Peer Muchalla, Sanoli, Gazipur, Nagla, all Mohali villages, and then join the Sector 20-21 road in Panchkula.
A senior official of NHAI said, “We held a meeting with the senior officials of GMADA and have requested them to hand over the land to us, which they have already acquired, and will expedite the issue.”
Superintending engineer of GMADA Davinder Singh said a meeting in this regard was held and a decision was expected soon. It was in 2013 that the work on the project had started, but it came to a halt in February 2014 when some landowners went to court seeking higher compensation.
Once the road is complete, the Shimla-bound traffic can take this road, bypass the bottleneck at Zirakpur, and join the Shimla highway at the Panchkula end.
Similarly, Ambala or Delhibound traffic from Shimla can also avoid Zirakpur. The road will open an alternative route from Panchkula to international airport, but will be much longer than the existing route.
APPROVED BY MASTER PLAN COMMITTEE
The project is being implemented to prevent around 1.5 lakh vehicles from Punjab and Haryana from entering the city daily. Chandigarh’s Master Plan also proposes this road to divert the inter-state traffic around the city for better traffic management.
According to the Master Plan committee, traffic between Mullanpur and Panchkula, and that from Kansal, Zirakpur and Panchkula, goes towards Chandigarh for “no reason”. Hence, the project will help reduce traffic congestion on the arterial roads of Chandigarh.
In August 2017, the then Union home minister Rajnath Singh had approved the project during a meeting of the Northern Zonal Council in Chandigarh. The project holds more significance in the wake of Rajnath putting the brakes on the much-touted Metro project for Chandigarh in July 2017, and asking the UT administration to look for alternative modes of transport.
THE 8-KM ROAD WILL BEGIN FROM AMBALAZIRAKPUR HIGHWAY AND JOIN THE SECTOR 20-21 ROAD IN PANCHKULA