7,560 million elevated highway to be complete by June

The National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) has promised that the work on the partially-access controlled four-lane elevated motorway in Ludhiana will be finished by June.

Originally scheduled to be finished by March, the 12.95-km National Highway-05 segment between the congested Samrala Chowk and Ludhiana MC limits, which cost 7562.7 million, has now been given an additional three months to finish, until June.

The RS MP from Ludhiana, Sanjeev Arora, visited NHAI Chairman Santosh Kumar Yadav in New Delhi recently, and he gave him an assurance to this effect. The change is significant because the stretch, which is now narrow, has earned the reputation as a killer highway due to heavy vehicular traffic, which daily claims valuable lives in big and little accidents.

The MP said to The Tribune on Friday that he had a detailed conversation about the NHAI's ongoing projects in the state, notably in Ludhiana. He claimed that while bringing up unresolved issues with NHAI projects in Ludhiana, he "drawn the Chairman's attention to topics of public interest with regards to the difficulty suffered by commuters at large due to unfinished NHAI projects in and around Ludhiana."

Arora said that the NHAI Chairman had instructed the relevant officials to speed up the ongoing work and given him the assurance that the city's elevated highway project would be finished by June.

According to project documents, Phase IV of the NHDP was being used to build the EPC version of the NH-05 portion that runs through the city. The elevated highway will have six lanes from Bharat Nagar to the municipal boundaries with two loops—one heading toward the railway station and the other toward the ISBT—and connect Samrala Chowk to Ludhiana MC limits until the Ferozepur Road on the NH-05 in the city.

The project includes six ramps, three at departure and entry locations, and a 320-meter-long flyover at the Cheema Chowk, which was previously finished and opened for traffic in February of last year by the then-NHAI Chairman Sukhbir Singh Sandhu.

The elevated motorway is now under construction and will offer continuous traffic flow to several government agencies, including the Mini-Secretariat, CP office, head post office, and important commercial buildings.

Even though the project's construction had started in October 2017, it was unable to move forward faster due to existing trees, electricity supply lines of 11, 66, and 220-KV, as well as the presence of sewer and water supply pipes in various sites.

The project work eventually picked up speed after all roadblocks were removed, and it was anticipated that it would be finished within the allotted time limit. The construction from 9.5 km to 12.95 km, including two ramps on either side for departure and entry, was also recently finished. The Cheema Chowk Flyover was finished and opened to traffic in December 2020.

An official stated: "This 3-km stretch was recently opened to traffic to provide much-needed respite to commuters and residents in the area of the Ferozepur Road."

She stated that the remaining project work from Bharat Nagar to the canal would be finished by June.