The Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal today sought personal intervention of Union Minister for Shipping, Road Transport & Highways Nitin Gadkari for approval of 4-laned high level bridge over Sutlej on the downstream side including RoB at Railway level Crossing No.88C on National Highway-503 extension so that the work on this project could be taken in hand at the earliest.In a letter to Mr. Gadkari, the Chief Minister informed him that Government of India (GoI) had already declared Kiratpur Sahib-Anandpur Sahib-Nangal-Una road as National Highway (NH-503 Extn.) in March, 2014. Since this road was an important interstate highway of immense economic importance connecting Punjab and Himachal Pradesh. Apart from this, the above said road also connected several important historical and religious towns such as Sri Anandpur Sahib, Kiratpur Sahib, Nangal in Punjab and Una, Mubarkpur in Himachal Pradesh.
The Chief Minister also brought into the notice of Mr. Gadkari that the traffic intensity on this road has increased manifold over past few years. This road passed through the thickly populated town of Nangal and crossed the river Sutlej at Nangal Dam Bridge which was constructed and opened to traffic in 1951 and whose carriageway was only 6.7 meters. Besides, the Railway Line from Una to Nangal-Anandpur Sahib-Chandigarh-Delhi also crossed this road near this Dam/Bridge. This resulted into frequent traffic jams over Nangal Dam Bridge which was unable to bear this heavy rush of traffic on account of closure of level crossing. Since the Railway Traffic had also increased over this section, the level crossing remains closed most of time leading to traffic jams and caused lot of inconvenience to the people.
Mr. Badal also apprised the Union Minister for Shipping, Road Transport & Highways that this high level bridge on river Sutlej had become structurally weak and unsafe and therefore there was an urgent requirement for construction of a new bridge over river Sutlej on the downstream of the existing Nangal Dam bridge along with Railway Over Bridge on the railway crossing No. 88-C.It may be recalled that the Ministry of Railways had already appointed M/S Technical Consultancy Services, Dehradun as Consultant to prepare the Detailed Project Report of this project.