The Punjab and Haryana High Court Chief Justice, Tirath Singh Thakur, today directed the National Highway Authority of India (NHAI) and Haryana government to widen the Zirakpur-Parwanoo bypass stretch without any further delay. A division Bench comprising Justice Thakur and Justice Mahesh Grover directed the authorities to file a status report within two months on the progress of work on the Pinjore-Parwanoo stretch on National Highway-22.

The NHAI filed status reports of the work progress on Zirakpur-Parwanoo stretch in the High Court today.

It was also submitted that against the scheduled 43 per cent, 45 per cent of construction on the Zirakpur-Pinjore stretch is complete.

Progress on the Pinjore-Parwanoo stretch is, however, slow at 13 per cent as compared to the scheduled 35 per cent.

Meanwhile, the Murthal flyover was completed on September 3 and the Ghanaur flyover was functional from November 10.

The status reports were filed by Anil Kumar Dahiya, project director, project implementation unit, NHAI.

Senior advocate M L Sarin, counsel for petitioner Harish Kumar Puri who had filed the PIL demanding speedy construction of flyovers on national highways, highlighted the problems of bottlenecks faced by commuters on the Delhi-Chandigarh stretch.

Sarin said commuters get stuck in traffic jams for hours when they leave from Delhi, the subsequent route to Chandigarh, however, is smooth.