Poor quality of NH -5 construction: Himachal High Court slaps notice to the Modi Govt 

 Himachal Pradesh High Court slapped a notice on the Narendra Modi government on the negligence and poor quality of construction work on the old Hindustan-Tibet National Highway four-lane between Chandigarh and Shimla which is closed for the last three days.

Taking cognizance of a PIL before the division bench of  Chief Justice MS Ramchandra Rao and Justice Ajay Mohan Goel on Thursday issued notices to the Attorney General of India expressing serious concern on unscientific digging of Shivalik hills leading heavy damage to NH and Tunnel on the four-lane of the state.

Former Deputy Mayor Tekinder Singh Panwar also filed a complaint recently against NHAI and the construction company accusing both of cutting hills in the most unscientific manner leading to the loss of many lives, heavy losses of vehicles and property besides causing massive loss of transport on the highway.

It is worthwhile to mention here that Fourlane was closed to vehicular traffic on Wednesday as a large portion of the road caved in. For the last three days state government running Traffic on about 50 to 100-meter-long alternate roads due to the blocking of the highway.

On Friday Kasouli-Dharmpur Solan road also caved in and now vehicular traffic was diverted via the Nalagarh-Shimla highway and between Solan and Nahan roads.

Including NH-3 and NH5 either washed away or blocked by landslides and caved in of these highways. Besides poor construction quality, recent monsoon rains affected all most all national highways.

NH -5 remained off for weeks due to massive landslides and soil erosion, the court was informed by the petitioner in PIL.

The court observed,” Keeping in view the magnitude of the problem we deem it appropriate to issue the notice and directed the parties to supply a full set of documents to the Deputy Solicitor General of India within three days and listed the matter for August 21.”

The petitioner has alleged through the PIL, ” The construction work for building four lanes was done in an unscientific manner between Parwanoo and Solan as vertical cutting of hills took place instead of step cutting leading to damage and loss to the state.”