Even as commuters continue to have a tough time on the Pinjore-Zirakpur highway, on which the ‘four-laning’ work has been on for five months, the police and the construction company are busy blaming each other for the chaos. The National Highways Authority of India (NHAI), on the other hand, says there is no problem.

On the Zirakpur-Kalka highway (NH-73), this busy 25 km stretch is supposed to be manned by the construction company, JP Associates, and the police. However, the hassled commuters are left to fend for themselves.

The Panchkula police blame it entirely on the NHAI and JP Associates. A S Dhillon, Panchkula Superintendent of Police, says it is the responsibility of the construction company and NHAI to handle traffic during the construction period.

“NHAI has not demanded any men from us, nor have they asked the construction company to do the same,” Dhillon said. “We recently wrote a letter to the NHAI, asking them to immediately ask the construction company to deploy people to handle traffic on the highway during construction. And that in case they want police personnel, they would need to pay the requisite amount.”

However, the construction company has a different story to tell. “We asked the police to provide us a few home guards, who could be deployed along the highway for guiding commuters, but we have not received any response as yet,” a senior official of JP Associates said.

The NHAI, on the other hand, completely denies that there is a problem. Anil Dahiya, Project Director of NHAI, said, “There is no traffic chaos. Things are perfectly in order.”

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