Tikri border opens for traffic
Blocked highway sections at Singhu, Ghazipur may reopen in January, says NHAI
ROHTAK/NEW DELHI: A day after rejoicing farmers left for their homes, the Tikri border stretch of Rohtak-Delhi Road was opened for vehicular movement on Sunday, while work was underway to clear protest sites at Ghazipur and Singhu borders of the national capital.
According to police, barricades put up at one side of the carriageway on Rohtak Road were removed in October to allow movement of traffic. The other side of the carriageway, where the farmers were agitating, was completely cleared by Delhi Police on Sunday, they said. “There is no obstruction in the way. The two sides of the road are completely open for vehicular traffic movement,” said a Jhajjar police spokesman. “Shops are likely to open from Monday and people going to Delhi every day can once again go in their own vehicles,” the spokesman added.
“Barricades and other obstacles have been removed. The stretch (Rohtak Road) is ready for use,” a farmer leader at Tikri Border said.
The portions of Delhi-Meerut Expressway (NH-9 and NH-24) at the Delhi-Ghaziabad border and National Highway 44 at Singhu border that were shut for over a year due to the farmer’s protest will be opened for public from next month (January 2022), said senior officials of the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI).
Officials said inspection on both the stretches of NH-24, NH-9 and NH-44 will be conducted after December 15 – the time by which the farmers’ unions have said both sites will be cleared. It will then take at least two weeks to complete all repair work, they added.
“We will start repairs once farmers have fully retreated. They (farmers) have said they will clear their temporary structures by this week. Immediately after the sites are cleared, our teams will conduct an inspection to assess the damage. After that repair and other maintenance works will be undertaken. People will definitely get to use those stretches of the highways from the New Year,” said one senior NHAI official asking not to be named.
After over an year of agitation against the three farm laws enacted by the Union government in September last year, thousands of farmers who were camping on the borders of Delhi have started wrapping up the makeshift structures they called home away from their villages after Parliament scrapped the laws on November 29. The three contentious laws deregulated farm trade.
A second senior NHAI official, who also asked to remain anonymous and handles both the highways, said a lot will also depend on the ongoing ban on construction activities in view of the hazardous levels of air pollution in Delhi. In case permissions are not granted, opening of the stretches could be delayed further, he added.
“We would open it quickly once the inspection is done. It may take about two weeks, subject to the permission of work being granted to us as currently there’s a construction ban in the city as part of anti-pollution measures,” the official said.
Teams of NHAI found that the structural safety of the elevated portion of NH-24 may have been affected as minor cracks were identified at some portions. “Usually, we have dedicated teams for regular highway maintenance. But, no such routine activity has happened on highways along Ghazipur and Singhu for more than a year now because of the farmers’ protest. Our latest preliminary report suggests repair works will be needed,” the official said.
Dependra Pathak, special commissioner of police (law and order, north zone), said the traffic police has started removing barricades and blockades from all the points used for the protests.