RailEnquiry

Ambala: The National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) has suspended traffic on the Ambala-Hisar highway near Ambala City for the past seven days following repairs of the railway overbridge.This has been causing inconvenience to hundreds of travellers going towards Sirsa, Hisar and Jind. The traffic has been diverted to alternative routes.Around seven days ago, a few cracks had appeared on the surface of the overbridge, posing danger to the passing vehicles. The national highway administration had suspended the traffic as a precautionary measure.The authority had claimed that the cracks were very minor and the overbridge was quite safe for the traffic.The cracks appeared on the overbridge could have been repaired within a day or two, but even after a week, the repair work is still continuing, indicating some serious problems. The condition of the overbridge is very poor as it was constructed around three decades ago and in comparison to that period, the number of heavy vehicles crossing over it has multiplied.It needs to be reconstructed according to its load capacity. It is not the first time that this has happened.Earlier, too, cracks have appeared on the overbridge.The state government has started constructing a local railway overbridge close to this one, but it will take at least another year to complete it.