Good connectivity is pivotal to popularising any tourist destination. However, when it comes to Uttarakhand, the two highways from Delhi that lead to Dehradun and Haldwani — the gateways to hill stations in Garhwal and Kumoan — are crying for serious attention for past several years.
It was during the tenure of former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee when highway development got much-needed impetus under the then Highways Minister B.C. Khanduri, some hopes were generated for fast-paced development of National Highways-24 (connecting Delhi to Lucknow) and 58 (Delhi to Dehradun). Incidentally, NH-24 also formed part of Mr. Vajpayee's ‘Golden Quadrilateral' dream project connecting all four metros — Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai and Kolkata — with world-class highways.
Over eight-years have passed since then and there is still no sign of completion of these highways. While the NH-58 between Delhi and Dehradun has several incomplete stretches, the story of NH-24 is still worse as work is yet to begin on various segments of the highway. Ironically, the government has kept the target of constructing 20-km of national highways everyday; and at that rate at least two parallel highways should have been constructed along the two highways over the past eight years. “After I leave Delhi for Dehradun, the first 100-odd-kilometres are highly congested and chaotic, thanks to rapid development of towns and cities falling in the NCR region, be it Ghaziabad or Modinagar; there are no signs of road widening work getting started soon. In the last five years, I have seen only 150 km of the around 300 km long stretch to Uttarakhand's capital been four-laned…at this pace it will take another decade before NH-58 can be called a proper highway,” rues Yashvendra Singh, an IT professional who travels to Dehradun at least thrice a month.
Though some work has been done on this stretch, the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) has failed to take care of bottlenecks by not constructing flyovers to stay clear off small hamlets like Chapaar, Barla, Purkazi and Mangalore that fall midway…it leads to loss of crucial time which travellers gain after paying a high toll of Rs.1 per km. “Though 150 km odd highway is there, still there is not much time saved while travelling to Dehradun despite the fact that I have to shell around Rs.150 extra for using the highway,” Mr. Singh adds.
The story of NH-24 is almost the same. After leaving Delhi, the first 50 km that pass through Vijay Nagar, Lalkuan, Dasna and Pilkhuwa does not offer a pleasurable drive as the highway now is literally a city road due to heavy local traffic, and needs widening on an urgent basis. Beyond that at Garh Mukteshwar the bridge over river Ganga is far from completion, while flyovers at Gajraula and Didauli have been left half-constructed due to litigation by locals.
“Though the biggest bottleneck, the railway crossing just between Rampur and Moradabad now has a new flyover, this stretch is still to be widened at several places. Then there is no sign of any bypass being constructed to avoid highly-congested Rampur and beyond that the construction work till Bareilly is yet to be commenced. Practically, the highway is of no use till all these glitches are taken care of,” says Krishna Kumar, a resident of Nainital who works in Delhi and keeps taking the NH-24 route on a monthly basis.
But the plight of those travelling to the Kumaon region does not get over after Rampur as they take the State highway to Haldwani. “The 50-km long stretch of the State highway between Rampur to Rudrapur that falls in Uttar Pradesh is lying neglected for decades and needs urgent attention. Traffic has increased manifolds over the years, particularly after big industrial units have come up in Rudrapur, the State as well Central authorities are yet to wake up from their slumber,” adds Mr. Kumar.
