Sirmaur to get first four-lane highway

Sirmaur district is set to receive its first four-lane highway soon. Departmental activities have been ramped up for the project, and consultancy tenders worth Rs 8 crore were awarded to Lion Company some time ago for the 57-km stretch of National Highway 07 from Kala Amb to Paonta Sahib, to be upgraded from a two-lane stretch to a four-lane stretch.

The private company has completed the alignment work for the upgrade of the highway. The National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) has now called for a public consultation and a suggestion meeting. A 7-km four-lane stretch from the Yamuna bridge in Paonta Sahib, near the Uttarakhand border, to Surajpur has already been constructed. The remaining 50 km from Kala Amb, near the Haryana border, to Surajpur is set to be constructed next.

Consultancy tenders for this section were issued a while ago. The firm is currently working on converting the road to a four-lane stretch, with the survey work in its final stage. This four-lane highway will be the first of its kind in the district and is expected to be significant for trade and transportation. Currently, the district has four national highways spanning 262 km. Besides NH-07, the 78-km Nahan-Kumarhatti NH-907A and the 7-km Laldhang-Batta Chowk NH-907 pass through the district. Additionally, the construction of the state’s first green corridor, the Paonta-Shillai-Gumma NH-707, is underway.

The completion of the highway will ease travel to Chandigarh, Ambala and Dehradun. The project from Kala Amb to Ambala is almost complete, with work now set to begin in Sirmaur. NHAI (Nahan division) Executive Engineer Manoj Sehgal announced that a meeting would be held at Kala Amb Panchayat Ghar at 11 am on Thursday to discuss the construction of the four-lane highway. Residents under the jurisdiction of the Nahan subdivision have been invited to offer their consultations and suggestions.