Rains wash away national highway four-laning in HP
SHIMLA : Three years of efforts of four-laning in the first phase of the national highway in Himachal Pradesh between Parwanoo to Solan towns have again virtually been washed away this monsoon — with less than 10% of the 39-km long, newly-laid road motorable in one stretch.
Motorists say the maximum damage to the road is on a 30km stretch between Parwanoo and Kumarhatti, where over 20km is either badly damaged or piled with boulders and muck due to frequent landslides.
Even the executing agency, the National Highway Authority of India (NHAI), for the project — which aims to cut travel time between Chandigarh and Himachal capital Shimla by shortening the distance by 17 km — does not know what to do with the falling boulders and muck.
It is simply putting the blame on heavy rains that are triggering landslides, damaging the road network time and again. Last year, too, this stretch was damaged by landslips during the monsoon and had to be rebuilt.
“We can’t do much as the loose hill strata could hardly withstand the rains,” NHAI regional officer in Shimla, Gursewak Singh Sangha, told IANS.
He said that, in some stretches, NHAI had constructed retaining structures like breast walls up to the height of 12 metres but sliding rocks and boulders damaging them badly — as well as the highway.
“For the past two months we have not made much progress in the construction of the stretch between Parwanoo and Solan owing to rains,” he added.
The ₹748 crore outlay for fourlaning the Parwanoo-Solan highway lapsed in March. A total of 23,785 trees faced the axe for its widening.
Geologists blame unscientific cutting of precipitous hills, largely of shell, sandstone and clay, for the frequent landslips.
“Most of these mountain slopes are of sedimentary formation and have become destabilised with the reckless cutting by heavy earth-moving machinery. The loose and naked boulders with muck will continue to roll down on the highway for eight to 10 years more,” former state geologist Arun Sharma told IANS.
LANDSLIDE IN SHIMLA HAMPERS TRAFFIC
Shimla Traffic was hit on the Shimla-Kalka highway after heavy rains in the past 12 hours triggered landslides on Tuesday. The road stretch connecting Tuttikandi to Dhalli was damaged due to a landslide.