Devoid of adequate width, this stretch is choking commuters

Ravi Dhaliwal

Tribune News Service

Gurdaspur, November 10

Driving on the 26 km stretch originating from Gurdaspur and ending at Mukerian, where it joins the four-laneJammu-Pathankot-Jalandhar national highway, is a no less than riding on way to the gates of hell because more accidents occur on the road as compared to any other in the district.

To complicate matters, the authorities are unable to decide if it is a fit case to be converted into a four-lane highway or not. For the last several decades, the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) has been mulling over the throroughfare, to take it from the state PWD and converting it into a national highway. Unfortunately, the design has never travelled beyond the blueprint.

In 2007, then Gurdaspur MP Vinod Khanna managed to get funds from NABARD to construct a kilometer long bridge on stretch over the river Beas. Suddenly, it became the one of most sought after roads, particularly for sugarcane farmers, as it considerably reduced the distance between Gurdaspur and Hoshiarpur by three hours. Earlier, in its absence, commuters had to take the circuitous Gurdaspur-Batala-Hoshiarpur route or had to cross the Beas on rickety boats.

Truckers going to J&K from Punjab, Haryana and Delhi also preferred to take this road instead of the Mukerian-Pathankot highway. However, the heavy traffic birthed cracks and potholes leading to accidents. Since 2012, it’s the condition started deteriorating. Truckers refrained and instead started taking long detours to reach their respective destinations. Even army men travelling to Tibri Cantonment, 6 km from Gurdaspur, were wary.

In 2017, when the Kartarpur Corridor was conceptualised, officials calculated that on an average, 10,000 devotees would visit Dera Baba Nanak everyday and more than half would use this road. It was at the time NHAI again evinced interest and decided to make it a four-laned course. However, their officials decided to keep the corridor open to see the rush the road could take and then take appropriate steps accordingly. However, once the Kartarpur Corridor opened, not many people were willing to go to Kartarpur for an assortment of reasons. Keeping this in view, the four-laned project was relegated to the sidelines.

The PWD, which is responsible for its upkeep, acts only when some VIP uses the road. In 2018, when CM Capt Amarinder Singh was to visit Gurdaspur, PWD Minister Vijay Inder Singla sanctioned a grant of Rs7.33 crore for re-carpeting. “The need of the hour is to get the passage widened. The traffic density is increasing with every passing day,” said Manmohan Singh, PWD Executive Engineer.