A ring road is the solution to traffic congestion being witnessed by Chandigarh and adjacent towns, the Punjab and Haryana high court has said while seeking reports in this regard from Haryana and National Highways Authority of India (NHAI).

The high court was reacting to submissions from Punjab that a greenfield project is suggested from Tepla in Rajpura, touching Banur and going up to Kurali, which will land on the Kurali-Chandigarh road, on which work is already in progress. It was further submitted that the road will further go into Himachal Pradesh to connect the Baddi-Nalagarh area.

Reacting to submissions, the bench of acting chief justice GS Sandhawalia and justice Lapita Banerji observed, “This concept of ring road exactly will decongest Chandigarh city”, asking NHAI to file an affidavit regarding the proposed roads in tricity.

It also asked Haryana to file a status report as to what necessary steps it had taken to implement the greenfield project before the national highway at Tepla and similarly how it proposed to connect the greenfield project further beyond Nalagarh to Pinjore and Kalka, and the status of the work.

The court was hearing a public interest litigation (PIL) in which it is monitoring steps being taken by the authorities to deal with congestion, such as Metro project, flyovers and national highway projects.

The court also asked the Chandigarh administration to file an affidavit to inform the court on how it planned to tackle the traffic flow on the Kurali road coming into Chandigarh and whether there is any proposal of flyover/elevated road, since the road is also known as PR-4, and further connectivity will generate more traffic flow coming into Chandigarh near PGIMER, through Khudda Lohara-Jassu, which is a known bottleneck.

Alternative site for Metro depot being explored: Punjab

The Punjab government also told the court that a piece of land had been identified near Paroul village in New Chandigarh, opposite the site earlier offered for Metro depot. The rectangular site is supposed to be more feasible and is thus being offered.

The matter regarding confirmation of 21 hectares land near Paroul for a depot to facilitate the operations and maintenance of proposed the Metro corridor is being discussed with the senior officers. The issue of technical requirements is also being looked into before taking a decision to hand over this parcel of land.

The government response came after the court in April had observed that there is no tangible reason as such for Punjab to “drag its feet” on providing the necessary infrastructure for commission of the Metro project in tricity. The court observation had come after Amrinder Singh, the amicus curiae in the case, had referred to reports that the UT administration was to initiate Metro work in April, but it has gotten delayed as the Punjab government was yet to give its nod for release of 50 acres in New Chandigarh for construction of a depot.