Two hundred crore rupees approved for Sanora-Neripul road – Congress and BJP compete for credit

Following the Government of India’s Ministry of Surface Transport’s (MoSTR) approval of ₹200 crore under the CRIF for the improvement of the Kumharhatti-Yashwantnagar-Neripul-Chhaila road, which passes through the Rajgarh subdivision, the BJP and Congress are jockeying for credit. Although no DPR was prepared for this road during the BJP’s tenure, the BJP is always at the forefront of taking credit whenever a project in Himachal Pradesh receives central approval.
According to Pawan Garg, Executive Engineer, Public Works Department, Rajgarh, the department prepared a DPR for the improvement of this road in 2024 and submitted it to the state government, resulting in the Government of India approving 200 crore rupees for this road. According to the executive, only 37 kilometers of the road from Neripul to Sanaura will be paved and narrow curves will be widened under this project. Three small bridges are proposed to be constructed over Parvi Khad, Jagher Nala, and Bajhetu Khad. It is worth noting that during the apple season, the stretch from Sanaura to Neripul is a major accident-prone area every year due to the narrow curves at many points, and overloaded trucks, while giving way to vehicles, can lose control and end up in the Giri River. The administration has also designated this section of the road as an accident-prone zone.
Previously, an amount of ₹46 crore (US$2.4 billion) was approved for the improvement of this road. In 2020, the work of paving and widening this road was entrusted to a private company. Even during this period, the tarring done by the private company eroded within just three months. Public protests erupted, forcing the company to re-tarnish the road, meaning the funds were not properly utilized for the improvement of this road. Furthermore, according to the Public Works Department’s DPR, this road was designed for vehicles with a payload capacity of only nine tons, whereas during the apple season, trolleys carrying 30 to 40 tons of payload are frequent on this road, causing the road to erode.
Now the question arises: will this road be transformed with 200 crore rupees, or will it remain in the same state as the 46 crore rupees project completed in July 2025? It should be noted that the Chhaila-Neripul-Sanaura-Ochghat-Kumharhatti road is an all-weather road, and all the apples from Upper Shimla reach various markets across the country via this road. Despite this, the road’s quality has not been upgraded; instead, the government upgraded this road from a state highway to a major district road several years ago. The Executive Director of PWD says that even after receiving 200 crore rupees, the road’s quality will remain at MDR.
The people of Rajgarh block say that instead of taking credit, both the political parties should focus on maintaining quality in road construction works, otherwise, unlike in the past, despite spending crores of rupees on this road, the condition of this road has not improved as expected.