The apple season is over and,thankfully,it was a low-crop year. The orchardists,in this dense fruit belt,were thus required to put in only half the effort to carry their produce to the market,as compared to previous years. With Longjian Roads and Bridges the Chinese company carrying out widening work on the Theog-Kotkhai-Rohru road struggling to get its visa issue settled with the Indian embassy in China,the condition of the road,which is a lifeline for the apple growers and the entire population in the area,seems to have worsened. Construction machinery and waste lying on the road are,in fact,posing serious threat to the commuters using the road by narrowing down the two-lane patch between Theog-Shaila and Kotkhai-Khara Pather. It is further risky to drive between Hatkoti and Rohru. The entire machinery of the company is grounded near Shaila and its camp office is closed with not even a single official at the site. The debris is lying abandoned all along the stretch,making it tough for vehicles to negotiate the narrow patches. More than 2,000 vehicles,including passenger buses and trucks carrying food stock to Rohru and other towns,pass through this road. If one loses concentration just for a second,it can prove fatal, says Imran,who drives a tourist taxi on the route. The Chinese company was chosen through an international bidding process to rebuild the 800-kilometre Theog-Rohru road under a World Bank-funded project sanctioned during the previous Congress regime. The work,however,was started by the BJP government. The road is not only important for the apple growers revenue to the tune of Rs 1,000 to 1,200 crore is generated from this belt alone but also locals who use the road on a daily basis. The tourist traffic and supply of food stocks to the area are other two important economic aspects. When Virbhadra Singh was chief minister and represented Rohru,the BJP always accused him of not paying any attention to the roads here. While travelling to Rohru,I was shocked how the BJP government has now totally messed up the World Bank funding, alleges Rangila Ram Rao,a former Congress minister. Rao says the government should have taken steps to see the Chinese company did not abandon the project. If the work is delayed,people will suffer and the apple produce will perish. It is high time they woke up from their slumber, he adds. The road is busier these days with most political leaders travelling to Rohru,which is going to polls on November 7. Nearly half a dozen accidents are happening almost daily,and a few of them are fatal, says Parkash Chauhan,a trader at Kotkhai. PWD Minister Gulab Singh Thakur,currently campaigning in Rohru,admits that visa problems with the Chinese company have brought the work on this important road to a standstill. I have told Principal Secretary (PWD) to get the matter resolved without losing much time. The matter has also been taken up at the level of the foreign secretary to facilitate employment visa requests of the company officials, he says. According to reports received here,the Indian ambassador at Beijing is understood to have cleared the names of a dozen engineers and management officials working on the road projects in Himachal Pradesh. A senior PWD official said: We have heard it unofficially from the company. Nearly 10 to 12 people may be given employment visas to work in India. Official details are awaited. We wonder how only these many people will be able to handle the big task of completing the project.
