2 Jalandhar projects may see light of day in new year

This new six-lane flyover was connected to the already-existing flyover towards Amritsar side. While the old one was a four-lane flyover, the heavy flow of traffic on the six-lane new flyover was leading to several accidents, especially when the commuters took the old flyover from the side lane, coming from the Jalandhar city side. Then the authorities closed the side lane and as a result, the city commuters were forced to take a long route towards the Ramamandi Chowk from where they could take a U-turn to take the Amritsar side route. Several localities are located along the highway leading to the Amritsar side.

The National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) could not widen the old four-lane flyover at the time as the railway lines got in the way. No road could be constructed across the railway lines without the permission from the Railway Board. Recently, Jalandhar Deputy Commissioner Jaspreet Singh visited the site of the PAP bridge, where it is proposed to construct a three-lane Railway Over Bridge (ROB) for easy access towards Amritsar from the local BSF Chowk side (city side).

NHAI officials had accompanied the deputy commissioner. The deputy commissioner said that this road is needed in the larger public interest to ease the traffic congestion. The officials of NHAI apprised the deputy commissioner that the six-laning of the Panipat-Jalandhar section of NH-1 was being initiated under which construction of service road and ROB construction would be done.

The deputy commissioner said that the new ROB will be constructed on the road leading to PAP from BSF Chowk side to curb the traffic chaos often faced by the commuters while travelling towards Amritsar and Ludhiana from NH-1. Another much-awaited project is the laying of the sewer line in the Surya Encalve locality of Jalandhar. A big issue of overflowing sewers and extensively damaged manholes in the posh Surya Enclave locality of Jalandhar has been plaguing the area for years where a big lake of sewage water spreading into several acres has come up now in the middle of four localities carved out by Jalandhar Improvement Trust (JIT). This sullage pond, which is visible on the satellite image on Google Earth, is surrounded by huge garbage dumps and is a big blot on the “smart city” landscape. Now, Punjab Sewerage Board is laying a new sewer line of 726 metres for which Rs 1.80 crore is being spent.

This sewer line will take the load of the overflowing sewage in these localities and may solve the drainage problem to a large extent. JIT officials said that this project was supposed to be completed by December 31, but now it will be completed in January 2023.

Several milk dairy owners, dwelling in the Surya Enclave Extension locality, had broken the manholes of the sewerage system – which connected the sewer system of these localities with Surya Enclave – in 2017-18, just to give bath to their cattle in pond water, which the cattle were drinking also, and because of that a huge problem of sewage water had erupted in the entire area.

These cattle are still bathing and drinking in this sewage water and these dairy owners are selling the milk of such cattle to the people. Officials of the Punjab Sewerage Board said that another parallel sewer was also laid on the main road of Maharaja Ranjit Singh Avenue, which is adjacent to Surya Enclave, and its connection with the main sewer line from Lamma Pind Side is lying pending because of no permission from NHAI and after the connection of that sewer line with the main one, the entire issue of these sewage pools of the posh localities will be resolved.