Barnala Bypass Pull Sudhar Sangharsh committee

Ref No…………………..
To,
Sh Nitin Jairam Gadkari,
Hon`ble Minister,
Ministery Of Road Transport & Highways
Government Of India.
Transport Bhawan ,1 , Parliament Street
New Delhi 110001
(Bottle Necks Of National Highway )

SUB: Request to reconsider construction of elevated road instead of solid flyover on Bathinda-Chandigarh National Highway ( BarnalaByepass)
(Review of Construction of 02 Vehicular Under Pass (VUP’s) by NHAI at Km 214+080 and Km 214+670 of NH-07 section within the Municipal Corporation Bathinda district in the state of Punjab)
Respected Sir,
We write to your good self to express our concern over the NH-07 section of road from chainage Km 214+00 to Km 215+300 that falls under Bathinda district in the state of Punjab. The same road section was developed as a part of Zirakpur-bathinda project by Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (GoI) through Punjab Public works Department in the year 2018 in the National Highway Development Programme (NHDP) Phase-IV project. The configuration of the existing road section is 4-lane with shoulders with the 7 meter service road and roadside drain-cum-footpath. The roadside Guardrail at the edge and street lights in the median of Main Carriage way are provided in the section. There are 02 X-type intersections at chainage Km 214+080 and Km 214+670 of NH-07 that are provided with Traffic lights in each leg.
Moreover, it is also brought to your kind notice that the land abutting the above stated section falls under the jurisdiction of Municipal Corporation Bathinda and comprises of built-up area throughout the section that includes small scale industrial setups, domestic manufacturing units, mechanical workshops for commercial vehicles, denting & painting shops, marriage palaces, fuel station, party halls, hotels, schools, residential properties, private colonies, etc. The traffic plying to the properties in the built-up area uses the Main Carriage way as well as Service road.
Further, it is kindly intimated that as an Authority, the Project Director, PIU, NHAI, Bathinda is implementing the project of construction of 02 nos. of Vehicular Underpass (VUP) of 1x30 meter span at above cited X-type intersections and its approaches would be Reinforced Earth wall on both sides of superstructures. The retaining wall would be provided wherever required to restrict the embankment slope within the Right of Way. Currently, the project had been commenced by the concessionaire.
In this regard, through the medium of your esteemed office, it is hereby appealed that the owners and road users concerned with built-up properties adjacent to NH-07 section of Bathinda city would be seriously affected by the Construction of VUP's and its approaches. It would impact the Turning radius available at the outlets and other properties. The local traffic on service roads would boom exponentially causing frequently traffic jams and thereby, the very idea of free and regulated flow of traffic would be questionable. Moreover, things could get even worse during the rainy season when the surface runoff from Main Carriage way would be disposed at service roads due to poor drainage system causing a Major Safety hazard for local traffic
Therefore, on behalf of the residents of nearby local area of NH-07 section in Bathinda city, it is humbly requested that the work of construction of the VUP's shall be terminated and instead, as per the land available and feasibility study, an Elevated Urban Highway similar to that provided in other cities of India might be proposed so that the residents may not suffer the inconvenience and safety issues due to service roads only as the area would become accidental prone.
We appeal your good self to pass on this information to the concerned authorities at the State and Central Government to look into the matter and take prompt action to address the problem. We hope that your good self would consider the request of the residents of this area and use the influence of your esteemed office to take appropriate action.

BACKGROUND
Barnala Bypass is misnomer but commonly used term for this road.

This road came into existence to bypass the city traffic and connecting the two national highways NH7 and NH54 before 1990,since then as the population continued to grow a lot of residential colonies has sprung up on the northern side of city Guru Gobind Singh Nagar, Baba Farid Nagar, Mata Jivi Nagar, HazooraKapoora colony, National colony, Bank colony, Teachers colony, Shakti vihar, Green city, PUDA Model Town extension phase 4-5,Maheshwari colony, New friends colony, Engineers colony, Mannat colony are a few to name.

It is here by stressed that around Fifty Thousand population resides in these colonies. Not only this, growth of economic activities, whole sale and retails has mushroomed along both sides of the highway giving gainful employment to scores of households.

Henceforth this major six lane highway bisecting the city in two halves is no more a bypass it has become one of the central road of city.

NEED AND CONSTRUCTION OF FLYOVER
As two major intersections on this highway faced increasing number of road mishaps resulting in frequent loss of limb and life,a need to overcome these two black spots lead to the planning of construction of flyovers over these two intersections and we very much appreciate your efforts for the same.

PROBLEMS ANTICIPATED AND CAUSE OF CONCERN

It has come to our knowledge that the said flyovers are solid filled up structures which will eat away almost the whole of existing width of the highway and only 15 feet slip road will be left for plying vehicles (Both heavy and Light) as the construction and development in all these colonies is in full swing and the same road will be used by fifty thousand population to commute with the main land mass of Bathinda city.

We also know that Bathinda is growing very rapidly demographically and presently has population growth of 19% ( as compared to 4% in 1990) which is unprecedented and all time high. This clubbed with explosive growth in the number of vehicles is going to cause severe congestion, traffic snarls, chaos, of resulting increased number of casualties than the present scenario.
Respected sir, people living on both sides of proposed concrete wall will be left in the lurch and shudder before leaving their homes and even to run routine errands.

WHY ELEVATED ROAD:
As mentioned above continued population growth ( expected more than 5 lacs by next 10 years) and increasing vehicular density has resulted in frequent traffic jams and long waiting times on the GT Road which is about 100 feet wide and was almost a free run just 5 years back.What do we expect of major city road catering to the same magnitude of public and commercial activities and just 15 feet wide on each side.
By converting it to an elevated road the whole space which otherwise will be eaten up by the solid flyover will be available smooth traffic flows of the city under its cantilever and will also absorb the increased traffic in future expected because of continuing population growth.
Otherwise also many cities Viz. Amritsar have used the extra space for recreational & ornamental purposes.

PRAYER AND ASPIRATIONS OF PEOPLE
Respected sir, the ambitious BHARATMALA and NHDP projects of govt of India envisions a seamless of network of national highways / expressways and construction of elevated roads traversing the urban duelings of cities of nation.
In the same direction the NHAI has allocated Rs.7205/ Cr for Punjab ( Hindustan Times 2-8-2021) to remove bottlenecks across national highways.
There are many projects which are underway to remove these bottlenecks across the cities of Punjab in Amritsar, Patiala and Ludhiana and all are in the shape of elevated roads. Length of each project is more than 10kms and each project costs around 1000 crore.
If 1000 crore project for other cities can be justified why not an elevated road for Bathinda which is emerging as a fast growing commercial, medical and educational hub and moreover cost of which will not be more than one tenth of above mentioned ongoing projects.

Bridges are meant to connect to separate landmass areas which are not otherwise accessible to each others where as the proposed solid filled flyover will create a social divide and will hamper the accessibility of emergency services (FIRE BRIGADE, HEALTHCARE INSTTITUTIONS, PUBLIC TRANSPORT NETWORK ) which largely exist in the other side of this bridge.

Areas which would have figured much lower in the priority list of modern infrastructure (Exit road from Bathinda city towards Dabwali) not even a national highway already boasts of an elevated road and on the other side a major road traversing has been relegated to an age old archaic solid flyover which itself will be blot on the beauty of city of Bathinda

RAY OF HOPE FOR BATHINDA CITY
Sir,We are not asking for any privileges and preferential treatment but a basic necessary requirement of safe passage for themselves and coming generations. Govt of India speaks of smart cities improving quality of life of its people by harnessing technologies and on the hand fails to meet the basic fundamental requirements of safe hassle free road infrastructure.
We Are Asking for elevated road instead of solid flyover to reduce accidents & to reduce frequent Long traffic jams .

Citzen of Bathinda look uptoyou to stop this travesty of social justice and correct this major social embellishment which is going to take along with the construction of this solid fly over. An elevated road in today’s era is the basic necessity of any modern city.
We also appeal if Centre Govt/State Govt are facing shortage of funds Then GOI may stop the construction work of solid flyover till the financial position of Govt improves for erection of elevated road which is the need of hour.
Thanking You

Yours Faithfully

Green City Phase 3 Welfare Society (Regd)
Bathinda

Copy To:
1.Gen. Dr. V K Singh,Minister of State,MORTH
2. Smt. Harsimrat Kaur Badal, Member of Parliament,Bathinda
3. Capt. Amrinder Singh, Chief Minister, Punjab.
4.Giridhar Aramane , Chairman ,NHAI
5.Sh Manpreet Singh Badal , Finance , planning & Program Implemetation , Govt. Of Punjab .

Vikas Chhabra    Contact the author of the petition