In fast lane

P.S. Chauhan

If everything goes as per the plan then soon Haridwar would be a sought after city. As of now the existing infrastructure in the city is simply unable to cope with the tremendous pressure of the swelling number of tourists and pilgrims and the expanding base of industries in the region. The situation on the traffic management front is the most alarming, with incessant traffic snarls in and around the city and on all the national highways to and from the. The 200 kms journey from Haridwar to Delhi and vice versa, on the two-lane national highway is not only highly tiring but also consumes about 6 hours, while it takes nearly 7 hours to cover 260 kms. from Dehradun to Delhi. According to a survey conducted by the National Highway Authority of India (NHAI), approximately 30,000 vehicles ply every day on the national highway-58 from Delhi to Dehradun. But if all goes as per the plan then all this chaos would be history. As NHAI has taken up the long awaited project of expansion and complete revamping of this national highway which is one of the busiest highways of the country. Now decks have been cleared for the four-laning of the national highway from Muzaffarnagar to Dehradun, as the expansion of the highway from Meerut to Muzaffarnagar is nearing completion. "When the proposed Express Highway from Delhi to Meerut is completed, it will be a smooth and pleasant journey of about three hours from Delhi to Haridwar and of about 3.5 hours from Delhi to Dehradun," says M.K. Jain, the project director. M.K. Jain told that the contract for the four-laning of the 119 kms. national highway from Muzaffarnagar to Dehradun has been given to a Russian company, Sibmost and a Delhi based Indian company, Era, which will complete the work by August 2012.

The project entails an expenditure of Rs.14,000 crores. The two companies will also be responsible for the maintenance of the highway for the next 25 years, including provision of lights at the dividers on the highway and deployment of cranes and ambulances for help at times of emergency.

To ensure smooth flow of traffic there will be three diversions from Muzaffarnagar to Haridwar. The first diversion will bypass Purkazi and Falauda towns and connect with the highway near the boundary of Uttarakhand at Narsan, while the second diversion will be from Manglaur to the College of Engineering, Roorkee to bypass the congested city of Roorkee. The third diversion from the village Baungla will bypass Bahadarabad and connect with the highway a few kms. before Haridwar. To keep the momentum of the speed of vehicles flyovers are going to be constructed at busy crossings, at Singh Dwar, Prem Nagar Chowk, Chandighat Chowk and Doodhadhari Chowk in Haridwar city. Similarly, from Haridwar to Dehradun, flyovers are proposed to be built at Motichur Railway crossing, Nepali Farm near Raiwala, Chiddarwala near Teen Paani and Lal Tappar just before the Industrial Area. Since the national highway from Haridwar to Dehradun crisscrosses through the Rajaji National Park, underpasses for the elephants and other wild animals will be built under the flyovers at three places, to provide safe corridors for their movements. The Supreme Court gave its nod to these underpasses last year on July 24, 2009. These underpasses are to be constructed at 131 meter long flyover at Motichur Railway Crossing, 400 meter long flyover at Teen Paani and at 400 meter long flyover at Barkot-Kansaria range, say the forest sources. Besides four-laning of the national highway, electric escalators on the pattern of those at the ITO and Dhaulakuan in Delhi, for pedestrians are to be built at five busy crossings in the city for traffic management. In addition to the expansion of the national highway-58, the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM), for which Haridwar has been selected, is under progress in the city for the creation of high class infrastrructure facilities, including sewerage, sanitation, electricity supply and potable water. Under the plan 12 most congested crossings in the city have been selected for expansion and beautification with an estimated cost of Rs.20 crores. The railway department has approved the construction of a four lane over-bridge at the railway crossing at Jwalapur.

Developmental activities in Haridwar are likely to get a further boost by the plan of the National Capital Region (NCR) board to develop Haridwar and Dehradun as counter magnet centres to Delhi on the pattern of Gurgaon, Ghaziabad and Noida to disperse economic activities and ease pressure on Delhi. Recently, Noor Mahmood, the member secretary of the NCR board discussed the details of the project with the state government. The central government will provide 75% of the funds to be spent on developing high class infrastructure in these cities so as to develop them as counter magnet area to the national capital. To bring further cheer to the residents of the holy city, the state minister for the urban development and local M.L.A., Madan Kaushik has announced that, considering the population of Haridwar, a proposal to upgrade the municipal board of the city to a corporation is in the pipeline.

"Since so many agencies are engaged in developing Haridwar, there is need to co-ordinate the plans launched by these agencies, such as N.H.A.I., JNNURM, Haridwar Development Authority (HDA), Nagar Palika Parishad and the recently constituted Mela Authority, after considering the nature of the city and by developing a consensus on such vital issues as pollution control and traffic management, for the harmonised and integrated development of the region," says Ashok Tripathi, the vice chairman of the Mela Authority.