Cursed Theog-Hatkoti road is now NH

Centre rains road projects on Himachal

Shimla: The Central government on Friday announced several road projects including national highways and four-lane roads.

This includes the Theog-Hatkoti road which has been declared a national highway.Significantly this national highway will continue further connecting Mehandali, Tikkar,Baggi and Narkanda.

This was announced here by union health minister JP Nadda as a representative of the Central government after a meeting with top state government officials here.

The World Bank funded Theog-Hatkoti road has been dug up for several years but work has been going on at a snail’s pace.

A Chinese company was earlier awarded the work. It was later awarded to a Delhi based company which is even slower than the Chinese company.

This 80 km road is the lifeline of the apple belt of Shimla district and people have been suffering since 2007.

After being declared a national highway the hill folk are hoping the widening work will pick pace.
When Sun Post asked local BJP leader Narender Bragta how the issue of the World Bank funded project awarded to a Delhi based company will be sorted out.

He said, “The ball is now in the court of the state government, the Centre has gone out of the way for building roads in the state.”

Nadda also announced that the Centre will pursue the four-laning of the Parwanoo-Shimla highway at Rs 3800 crore.

The Nehr Chowk-Kullu road will be four-laned, and the road to Manali will be two-laned. The entire project will cost Rs 4400 crore.

Three industrial corridors have also been announced by Nadda including covering the Baddi, Nalagarh belt.

Nadda said the old Hindustan-Tibet road will also be revived and a team of experts will soon visit the high altitude road to develop it as an alternative route.