Extremely poor condition of the Kiratpur — Nerchowk portion of the Chandigarh — Manali stretch of the National Highway has become an eye-sore for the tourists and is seriously affecting smooth flow of traffic for those who want to visit the green and panoramic valleys of Himachal Pradesh.
Even as the roads to Manali are in a poor shape, the Army is engaged with zest and zeal clearing the 223-km long snow covered Rohtang-Manali road. The gigantic task is difficult and challenging for them. At some points, the layer of snow is over 30-35 feet high. The Border Roads Organisation started the arduous assignment of clearing the snow last week.
A strong contingent of 100 army personnel of BRTF under the command of Col. K.P. Rajinder Kumar pressed into service ten heavy modern machines to remove snow and restore traffic on the strategic Rohtang road. Col Kumar expressed confidence that if weather remained normal the road would be cleared for traffic by May. The BRO faces an uphill task to open the Manali-Sarchu Pass where at some points the hard snow-layer is up to 35-foot thick. At Gulaba, a point 21 km from Manali, the snow layer is over 10-foot high.
This year, the heaviest snowfall has been recorded in the past 100 years or so. Col. Kumar says that the road passes through two high-altitude passes of Rohtang (13050 ft) and (Baralacha 16300 ft) now under 30 to 36 ft snow. The national highway between Kiratpur and Manali is miserable for tourists and others.
“It seems the State Government has abandoned it to the mercy of God. It is an irony that pretty little has been done to improve it condition despite the fact all expenses on it repairs and restoration would be born by the NHAI. No financial liabilities are involved in making the road tourists friendly as all the expenses on constructions and repairs of road are born the NHAI,” said a tour operator.
Recently the NHAI sanctioned some amount for the repairs of the Kiratpur - Nerchowk portion of the road. For a couple of weeks the road seemed to look fine and the people and tourists heaved a sigh of relief.
However, with the first spell of rain big potholes surfaced on the road causing bone-breaking jerks irking the tourists and damaging costly cars and other vehicles. Those in tourism sector said the so-called repairs done with cores of rupees were a mere “window-dressing and eye-wash” and the big potholes which had been filled with earth instead of stones appeared again.
They said the inspecting agencies also allegedly overlooked the work done by the contractors without complying with the requisite specifications. The matter of filthy and fractured roads also raised in the current session of Vidhan Sabha by the leader of Opposition, Prem Kumar Dhumal and other members of the BJP.
“It is intriguing that the condition of Shimla-Chandigarh and Hamirpur – Ghagas road is much better compared to the road network of other parts of the State. It speaks volumes about the deteriorating condition of the Kiratpur – Mandi road that many tourists prefer to visit Manali via Shimla,” said a hotel owner. Sources said Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh has taken up the matter of bad national highways in the State with the Union Minister for Surface Transport, Nitin Gadkari.