‘VVIP’ Bathinda-Badal road to be four-laned

‘VVIP’ Bathinda-Badal road to be four-laned
Rajay Deep
Tribune News Service

Bathinda, January 31
The ‘VVIP’ road in Bathinda district that connects the city to Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal’s native village Badal in Muktsar district is going to be four-laned soon.The Rs 62-crore project has been sanctioned by the Union government under the Central Road Fund Scheme, 2010-11. It includes the widening of another road in the Bathinda parliamentary constituency.
It is the Barnala-Mansa-Sardulgarh-Sirsa road (101 to 119.70 km), commencing from the border of Barnala district to Mansa town.
According to information available, the Bathinda-Ghudda-Badal-Kheowali road has been divided into three parts — from km 0-13.20; from km 13.20 to 17.50; and from km 17.5 to 33.91.
The construction on the middle part (km 13.20 to 17.50) around the village Ghudda (the CM’s ancestral village) is already in progress while the sanction for the remaining parts has been ordered now.
It may be mentioned that the Bathinda-Ghudda-Badal-Kheowali road crosses past Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Singh Badal’s new residence at Badal village.
In a statement, Bathinda MP Harsimrat Kaur Badal today said that keeping in view the demand of the local population, she was constantly pursuing these projects. “After the sanction, the state PWD have been asked to expedite these projects and complete the construction within an year,” she added.
The sanctioning of the construction of the roads has also raised some eyebrows as the widening of the roads requires axing thousands of fully-grown trees of Tortalis, Neem, Kikkar and Sheesham.
Sources in the Divisional Forest Office informed that more than 1,200 trees standing on the under-construction stretch (from 13.2 km to 17.5 km) on the Bathinda-Ghudda-Badal-Kheowali road had already been axed and the widening of the whole stretch from Bathinda to Kheowali would further require felling of nearly 10,000 trees. However, DFO SP Anand Kumar claimed over phone that as per norms, the department would try to compensate the loss to the environment by planting saplings.
When asked if there was a political compulsion for the four-laning of the Bathinda-Ghudda-Badal-Kheowali road as the traffic flow was not much on this stretch, superintending engineer of the PWD (B&R), DS Chahal replied, “The step has been taken considering the future demand.” He denied any political compulsion behind the project.
Chahal named various development projects, including the Central University of Punjab, coming up at Ghudda village to justify the widening of the road.