Soon,zip to Himachal in record time

NHAI officials claimed that 93 percent work on the much awaited 10km bypass has been completed. The Pinjore-Parwanoo bypass is part of Zirakpur-Parwanoo highway,out of which the stretch of Zirakpur- Pinjore is functional from over a year.

“We are planning to make the bypass motorable in January,” said Chandigarh NHAI project manager Anil Kumar Dahiya.

He added that the toll plaza on the Zirakpur-Parwanoo highway will be put up at Chandimandir by the end of March 2012.

Sources in the company constructing the bypass also confirmed the deadline.

“The 5.5 km stretch of the bypass in Haryana is ready and the road has been black topped. The work on the road stretch in Himachal Pradesh is still in progress. The bypass has been connected to the highway in Himachal Pradesh near Timber Trail in Parwanoo,” said an official at Parwanoo,where labourers were busy in connecting the bypass to the present highway. “Traffic can move on the bypass in January and simultaneously we will continue finishing our work.”

Initially,the Parwanoo-Pinjore bypass was to be completed by August 2010. After missing the deadline,the NHAI had submitted a conditional affidavit in the Punjab and Haryana High Court,saying that the road would be ready by December 2011,if they were allotted the land by March this year.

“But there was lot of delay in the transfer of the forest land in Himachal side,” said an NHAI official.

Kalka town residents are keen to see the road motorable.

“Every day it would take an 30-45 minutes to cross this town during the peak hours. This had made life miserable for residents shuttling to Haryana,Punjab and Chandigarh,” said Gopi Lal,45,a shopkeeper at Kalka. “There was a delay in road construction,but finally the bypass will bring cheer to entire population living in border areas of Haryana and Himachal.”