The apple season is over and, thankfully, it was a low-crop year. The orchardists, in this dense fruit belt, were thus required to put in only half the effort to carry their produce to the market, as compared to previous years.

With Longjian Roads and Bridges — the Chinese company carrying out widening work on the Theog-Kotkhai-Rohru road — struggling to get its visa issue settled with the Indian embassy in China, the condition of the road, which is a lifeline for the apple growers and the entire population in the area, seems to have worsened. Construction machinery and waste lying on the road are, in fact, posing serious threat to the commuters using the road by narrowing down the two-lane patch between Theog-Shaila and Kotkhai-Khara Pather.

It is further risky to drive between Hatkoti and Rohru. The entire machinery of the company is grounded near Shaila and its camp office is closed with not even a single official at the site. The debris is lying abandoned all along the stretch, making it tough for vehicles to negotiate the narrow patches.

More than 2,000 vehicles, including passenger buses and trucks carrying food stock to Rohru and other towns, pass through this road. “If one loses concentration just for a second, it can prove fatal,” says Imran, who drives a tourist taxi on the route.

The Chinese company was chosen through an international bidding process to rebuild the 800-kilometre Theog-Rohru road under a World Bank-funded project sanctioned during the previous Congress regime. The work, however, was started by the BJP government.

... contd.