Farmers Movement Archive

Commuters relieved as highways all set to get ‘wider’ again

New Delhi: With the farmers now packing up to leave the protest site at Singhu after a year, the local residents are heaving a sigh of relief for the ease they hope will now come in commuting. However, the passages there — both National Highway 44 and the local Kundli road — have to be repaired after over 12 months of non-maintenance due to the farmers sit-in. NH44 is a six-lane highway with two service lanes running parallel to it. With the protesters occupying much of it, vehicles especially the heavy trucks, were able to use only a tiny portion of the width. Sachin Kumar Singh, who lives in Kundli, commuting had been hit by this and affected the businesses along NH44. The heavy commercial vehicle took to the narrow village lanes to reach Delhi and this has taken a toll on the local roads. Singh said, “The only motorable route through Singur border is now heavily damaged. There are huge craters filled with water. In some places, the road is so decrepit that the dust makes it difficult to keep the eyes open. I hope repairing the roads gets come attention now.” Another local, Satender Sangwan, pointed out that more than the highway, it was the service roads that required urgent repairs. “These always had craters and portholes, and when in a matter of time these lanes began taking on the road load after the main road was closed by the protests, its condition only worsened. The authorities know this lane was being used during the protest but didn’t take care to have it fixed up,” alleged Sangwan. At Singhu village, people are hoping for a change. “There was a 1-km gap between the police barricades on NH44 and the protest dais. So there was always traffic jams on the roads passing through the village,” noted Arun Gupta, a Singhu local. “We hope that with the protest ending, the government will quickly restore the village roads that bore the load of the highway for a year.”

The Times of India

2021-12-10

Delhi