Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal on Wednesday sought Union Minister for Shipping, Road Transport and Highways Nitin Gadkari’s intervention for issuing directions to the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) to take over the portion of NH-95 within the MC limit from ludhiana Municipal Corporation for its early improvement.
Badal, in a letter addressed to Gadkari, apprised him that NH-95 was being four-laned from Chandigarh up to Samrala chowk in ludhiana by NHAI.
“Request for Quote (RFQ) for this prestigious project has already been invited. In addition, NHAI has also taken up the work of four-laning of ludhiana-Ferozepur section on BOT basis and work at site is in progress,” he added.
Badal said that however, “it has been learnt that a portion of about 10 kilometres of NH-95 from Samrala Chowk up to MC limit ludhiana, which was under jurisdiction of ludhiana MC, has not been included in these projects. There is heavy vehicular traffic on this portion which resulted in frequent traffic jams due to number of busy intersections such as Bhai Bala Chowk, Aarti Chowk, PAU gate no 1 and 2 etc”.
He added that ludhiana MC did not have sufficient funds for improvement and maintenance of this national highway within MC limits.
“Thus, it would be appropriate if this stretch of about 10 kms is also handed over to NHAI for improvement. Moreover, it would also lead to continuity of jurisdiction of NH-95 under NHAI,” said Badal. He maintained that ludhiana MC was ready to handover this stretch to NHAI.