CHANDIGARH: At a time when more and more people are finding it difficult to cross over to the other side on the Ambala-Zirakpur highway due to heavy and speeding traffic, their demand of a footbridge is far from reality as the Zirakpur municipal council and National Highway Authority of India ( NHAI ) aren’t clear on where to get the land for the purpose.Official records revealed that there is no government land available near the VIP Road on the national highway. In that scenario, the authorities have to purchase private land at market value, which will be a costly affair.Importantly, residents of the nearby localities have been demanding a footbridge for the past four years since the stretch has become accident prone, but nothing has happened on the ground.Navjit, a resident of VIP Road, said crossing the road from the VIP Road side to Gazipur road side is very dangerous. He said bridge is need of the hour and it should be handicappedfriendly too.Sanjeev Bansal, another resident, said he couldn’t forget an accident that happened a year ago in which a pregnant woman, working in a shop in the area, died while crossing the road. He said accidents have not stopped, but the authorities have failed to find a solution.Manoj Das, a resident of Zirakpur, said, “The issue of overbridge has been taken up by VIP Road residents as well as Gazipur road residents. But unfortunately, nothing has been done do far. Every time we have raised the issue, we have been told that every process is almost complete and the work will start in three to four months.”Pankaj Sharma, a resident of VIP Road, said recently a person from Derabassi was injured while trying to cross the road. He had taken the injured to the hospital after he was hit by a bike. He said the rush of vehicles increases significantly in evening.Col H P Singh, president of a resident welfare association , said a footbridge equipped with a ramp is required near the VIP Road.Asish Mathew, president of another resident welfare association, said it’s the basic facility which is required in such a densely populated area where people need to cross the road to catch buses or auto-rickshaws. “We hear about numerous accidents happening on this stretch. Four years back, I had met an official of the NHAI, but he had expressed his helplessness in the matter, saying that there is no land available with them to build the bridge.”Yadwinder Sharma, area councillor, VIP Road, said the MC would acquire the land and would hand it over to the NHAI for the construction of the footbridge. He said the NHAI had written to MC in this regard and they would soon respond to it.But Manvir Gill, executive officer (EO) of municipal council, refused to have received any such communication from NHAI about land acquisition. He said the MC did not have any power to acquire land and transfer it to the NHAI.K L Sachdeva, director, National Highways Authority of India, said residents had made a request regarding a footbridge a number of times, but the NHAI did not have land in the area. “We don’t have problem to construct the footbridge, but the state government has to allocate land for the same,” he added.

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