The Punjab government has planned 8 more Railway Over Bridges in the critical areas of the state that would improve the road connectivity major cities and towns substantially.Disclosing this here today Mr. Sharanjit Singh Dhillon, Minister for Public Works Department (Roads), said that the department conducted a thorough study of feasibility and requirement of ROBs on various stretches of the roads besides conducting a survey of traffic density on each segment of the road. He said that after identifying the critical bottlenecks hindering the smooth flow of traffic, the Government has given its in principal approval to the 8 new ROBs that would be constructed in the next plan period.
Giving the details of planned ROBs, Mr. Dhillon said that an endeavor has been made to construct ROBs in Malwa, Doaba and Majha regions of the state as per immediate requirement of each region. He said that newly planned ROBs would be constructed in Sangrur, Amritsar, Makhu, Bathinda, Barnala, Kotkapura, Shahkot and Ferozepur districts.Mr. Dhillon said that revised Railway Work Program of 2011-12 has already approved ROBs to be constructed on NH-64 at Sangrur, NH-71 at Barnala and both these ROBs are expected to be completed within one year. The PWD Minister said that the Railway Ministry has already approved ROBs at NH-15 that would be constructed at four locations at Amritsar Town, Kotkapura, Makhu and near Bathinda Thermal Plant and all these four ROBs were expected to be completed within 18 months of allotment of work. He informed that a separate ROB on NH-71 in Shahkot Town would be constructed under National Highways Development Program-IV within two years. The demand of Ferozepur Cant, people to have ROB on NH-95 would be met with the approval of new ROB. The Minister said that the state Government was laying special emphasis on improvement of road connectivity in the state besides linking all main cities and towns with 4/6 lane roads and all towns of the state would be linked at the cost of Rs. 7600 crore. He further said that in 2012, the SAD-BJP Government had incurred Rs. 400 crore on 33 Railway Over/Under Bridges built by SAD-BJP government.