MOHALI: After missing six deadlines in a row for two years, National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) is poised to throw open the second phase of the
Kharar flyover by December 15, giving much-needed respite to commuters.
NHAI project director Pardeep Attri said the complete project will be commissioned before the deadline as the work is going at a great pace. Earlier, NHAI had thrown open the dual carriage way of 1.5km stretch of the flyover starting from Balongi up to Mundi Kharar.
Attri said, “We are now running on schedule and the complete flyover will be thrown open by January 15. This portion of the flyover called as Balongi flyover has been opened on a pilot basis to get a practical experience. The next stretch over Kharar bus stand is likely to be thrown open for traffic by December 15. Covid-19 pandemic has helped us in gaining pace in construction as major hindrance of traffic blockade under the flyover no more made us struggle.”
Kharar sub-divisional magistrate (SDM) Himanshu Jain, who is supervising the project after holding a meeting with NHAI officials, said, “We are very much running on schedule. The work is being done on a war-footing and 88% of the total project has been completed. The Kurali side of the flyover will also be opened by January 15, much before the announced deadline.”
He added that the work on stretches near Desumajra and Sunny Enclave in Kharar will be completed as soon as the work on the Khanpur bridge is over. “We are looking forward to open the second phase of the flyover which will further enhance the hopes of meeting the deadline for entire project,” he said.
The project initiated in November 2015 has missed six deadlines and was initially poised to be completed by December 2018 in three years stipulated timeframe but due to land acquisition delay and other such administrative hindrances, it got halted. Later, another deadline of November 2019 was set but the acquired land could not be vacated which further delayed the project . Then another deadline of March 2020 was set after which Covid-19 pandemic struck and the work was stopped for two months. Then once restarting in April, the NHAI-L&T rescheduled the deadlines every two months but still could not ready to commission the flyover.