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Ludhiana: Riding gets bumpy on Sherpur Chowk slip road
The broken road is also leading to a number of accidents.
Bumpy rides have become a daily hassle for commuters due to the poor condition of the slip road alongside the Panipat-Jalandhar National Highway-44.
The road starting from Sherpur Chowk has been in a state of disrepair for a long time, forcing commuters to take sharp turns to avoid running into the potholes and dilapidated patches.
The situation gets worse during peak hours as a number of vehicles get stuck in potholes, leading to traffic snarls.
To top it all, parking of commercial vehicles, including trucks and auto-rickshaws, adds to the chaos.
SPS Hospital’s public relations officer Lakhvir Singh Namdhari said that a number of times, they have brought the problem to the notice of the authorities, but to no avail.
“The broken road is also leading to a number of accidents,” said Namdhari.
In July last year, two persons were killed after a tipper container had fallen on them on the slip road.
An industrialist Avneesh Aggrawal said, “The situation gets worse during rains and commuters, unaware of the pothole, get stuck in it.”
Another industrialist Paramvir Singh Bhogal also raised a similar concern. He said, “The sections of the road are so badly engineered that every drive is a death-defying endeavour. Instead of being penalised for being directly or indirectly complicit in the hazardous state of the highway project, it is unimaginable that the highway authorities are being allowed to further fleece the hapless citizens by increasing toll rates.”
On being asked about the poor condition of the slip road, NHAI project director Virendra Kumar said the matter had come to their notice and corrective measures were being taken. Member of Punjab Road Safety Council, Rahul Verma, said a meeting between Ludhiana deputy commissioner Varinder Sharma and NHAI authorities was scheduled for December 24 to discuss the issue.
