Sanjeev Arora, MP meets Union Minister of Road Transport and Highways Nitin Gadkari 

Ludhiana, June 14, 2022: Sanjeev Arora, Member Parliament, has met the Union Minister of Road Transport and Highways Nitin Gadkari in New Delhi on Monday and discussed some important NHAI related issues of the state. 

Giving details, he told here today that he demanded early completion of ongoing NHAI projects especially going through cities. All the Punjab cities are overcrowded having lots of traffic. Public in general is facing too much inconvenience on account of ongoing projects. He stressed that immediate action is required to complete these patches passing through cities. He pointed out that he is used to witness chaos traffic scenes almost daily in Ludhiana. “In reply, the minister gave a very positive response and accepted his demand and assured that all these ongoing works will be completed speedily so that no inconvenience should cause to anyone”, Arora revealed.   

Further, Arora requested the Minister to have as many as possible service roads along with NHAI projects helping public at large and especially farmers in transporting their tractors and combines which are huge and are not practical on National Highways. “On this issue, the Minister instructed his officers to repair the existing service roads and make sure that all the new service roads are made at the earliest possible and of best possible quality.” 

Arora told that Gadkari told him that the MORT&H is planning to spend around Rs.50,000 Crores in Punjab in the coming years. The minister also asked Arora that the state government should send a detailed report wherever RoBs are requited in Punjab. The minister assured that these RoBs would be set up on priority basis for the convenience of the general public. The Minister told Arora that the MORT&H is facing problems in locating lands for various projects in Punjab. He therefore, sought that the state government should facilitate the MORT&H in this regard.

He also took up the issue of declaration of more roads in State of Punjab as National Highways. He apprised the minister that Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MORT&H) during the year 2016 and 2017 had declared 14 state roads (1043 km) as in-principle National Highways in Punjab. Of these, five roads (481.69 km) have already been declared as National Highways. But the nine roads (561.39-Kms) are yet to be declared as National Highways. These roads are as under: Banga on NH-344A – Garhshankar - Anandpur Sahib-Naina Devi (58.84 kms), Patiala-Pehowa-Kurukshetra-Ladwa-Yamunanagar (33 Kms), Starting from junction at NH-5 near Prem Nagar-Bassi Pathana-Fatehgarh Sahib upto Patiala bypass (50 Kms), Fatehabad-Ratia-Budhlada-Mandi on NH-148B (20.55 Kms), Prem Nagar-Morinda-Chamkaur Sahib-Bela-Paniyali road and connecting to NH-344A (31 Kms), Ludhiana-Malerkotala-Dhuri-Sangrur on NH-7 (75 Kms), Khanna-Malerkotala-Raikot-Jagraon junction with NH703 near Sidwan Bet (120 Kms), Nawanshahr – Rahon-Machhiwara-Samrala-Khanna including spur from Ludhiana to Rahon (90 Kms) and Gurdaspur-Mukerian-Talwara-Mubarikpur road (83 Kms). “On this issue, the Minister told that the MORT&H for the time being has stopped declaring National Highways across the country. Once this process is restarted then Punjab will be given priority”, said Arora. 

Earlier, Arora also met the NHAI chairman and discussed issues of Ludhiana with regard to the ongoing projects. He spoke about partially access controlled four-lane elevated highway in Ludhiana. He highlighted that in this project balance work especially from Sidhwan Canal to Bharat Nagar Chowk is very slow. Service roads all along this stretch of elevated road are in bad shape. Waste construction material is lying all along making traffic hassles. Foot over bridge is urgently required at Bus Terminal. Also, with median work going on even crossings of roads become difficult. He pointed out that this is highly populated city and hence requested the NHAI chairman to take an early action so that people of city have least troubles.

Arora also took up the issue of Ludhiana-Chandigarh Road with the NHAI chairman and pointed out that in the six lane Ludhiana-Chandigarh NH project, which is part of Delhi-Amritsar Katra Expressway, the work of shifting of utilities is very slow. Also need Foot Over Bridges for pedestrians' safety. FOBS required are required at Mundian Khurd, Mundia Kalan and Vardhman Chowk. He also pointed out that City Traffic police has also some issues. “The NHAI chairman assured to resolve all these issues in the near future”, said Arora. 

Arora said the meetings with both the Union Minister of Road Transport and Highways Nitin Gadkari and the NHAI chairman hopefully will prove fruitful.