Shimla
Chief Secretary Prabodh Saxena briefed the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) about the latest status of the National Highways of Himachal Pradesh following the damages caused to the road network due to the landslides triggered by heavy rains and floods in a virtual review meeting chaired by Tarun Kapoor, Advisor to the Prime Minister.
The Chief Secretary informed the PMO about the current status of the restoration of National Highway at the Kainchi Mod near Pandoh which is completely closed for the traffic, besides the condition of other National highways.
Sh. Kapoor has assured for the joint inspection of the damaged stretch NH near Pandoh at Kainchi Mod by the National Highways Authority of India, Border Roads Organization and the State Public Works Department soon.
Speaking about the Kullu-Manali stretch of the Highway, the Chief Secretary said that a traffic plan has been put up in place and a window between 8 PM to 5 AM has been marked for the repair and restoration works. The centre directed the district administration to look for options to increase the window time to further speed-up the restoration work. Meanwhile, the Mandi and Kullu administration has been asked to further strengthen the alternative road keeping in view the apple season.
Prabodh Saxena informed the PMO that Chakki Bridge on the Pathankot-Mandi Highway has been completely shut down for traffic and added that the State Government has taken up the matter with the Government of Punjab in order to check the further erosion of river bed so as to avoid any more damage to the inter-state bridge.
The traffic on the Shimla-Kalka route is through at all points, said the Chief Secretary, adding that the Chakki Mod near Parwanoo was also open for all types of vehicles. He, however, stated that there was an issue of repeated landslides at the point and a permanent solution was required for the uninterrupted flow of the traffic. The Chief Secretary also briefed about the massive landslides occurred at Kotrupi on Pathankot- Mandi and Namhol on Shimla-Mataur highway which have been cleared and restored for the traffic.
Principal Secretary PWD Bharat Khera, DC Solan Manmohan Sharma, DC Kullu, Ashutosh Garg, Engineer-in-Chief HPPPWD, Ajay Gupta, ADC Mandi Nivedita Negi and Regional Officer NHAI, Abdul Basit were also present in the meeting.
