Haridwar: Traffic jams on the busy National Highway-58 that connects Delhi with Haridwar are likely to continue for some more time as construction work on the highway does not seem to be completed anytime soon. Union highways minister Nitin Gadkari had promised in 2016 that the highway project will be completed by the end of the year. However, the work on the Muzaffarnagar-Haridwar stretch of the highway is still incomplete, which is causing major traffic bottlenecks.While there are several factors leading to traffic jams in Haridwar, the most important among them is the ongoing Char Dham yatra. The season draws lakhs of pilgrims and tourists to the holy city from the neighbouring states leading to endless traffic snarls. Officials said that during the yatra season, an average 80,000 people take the highway on a daily basis.The fact that the administration chose to lay sewer lines in the whole city during the yatra season has compounded the situation. There is hardly a road or street that has not been dug to lay sewer line which is obstructing traffic further. The incomplete national highway is also adding to the woes. At a time when the city’s roads and streets are choked, a completed highway would have come as a great relief, said Vinod Kumar, a retired engineer from Shivaliknagar.Hopes of the work speeding up were raised last week when Gadkari asked the National Highway Authority of India (NHAI), Era Infrastructure, the company involved in the construction, and the bank financing the project to “put your heads together, formulate a plan for completion and execute the project at the earliest”. This was done at a meeting in Goa on June 12 where projects from all over the country were discussed in the presence of Gadkari, PS Gusain, NHAI project manager told TOI.Though the process to terminate the construction company’s contract is on, the government will prefer not doing it. One reason for it is that awarding the work afresh to another company and the company starting the work on the ground will take at least six months, Gusain said. EI has already completed around 70% of the work. If GC helps it arrange the amount needed for the work’s completion and EI with GC and the bank works out a completion plan which NHAI approves, the project may be completed in much shorter time.Another reason why termination of the contract will be the last resort for the government is an apprehension that it might entail litigation, Gusain said. He added that if EI comes out with a firm plan, the government will consider it. A meeting with EI and the bank at the ministry's headquarter in Delhi is to be held shortly and a clear picture of things will emerge only after that.

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