To

The Hon'ble

Minister of Road Transport & Highways

Govt. of India

Subject :Concerns Regarding the Construction of Parwanoo- Solan

Expressway.

Respected sir,

I am writing this letter to bring it your knowledge that the construction of

Parwanoo- Solan Expressway (NH-22) which is being carried out by
contractor to whom the work has been awarded by NHAI is not doing a satisfied
job. The work on the road has been started 18 months back.

Following are the important points for your submission:

1. Road Alignment: Being a civil engineer I have the basic knowledge of the
road geometrics. And in the above mentioned road it has not been followed
properly ,as the sharp curves are not given the proper alignment and further
which can be very dangerous once the road gets fully operational .Because as
we all know that the speed of the vehicles would be quite high as it is being
constructed a EXPRESSWAY. And the reason behind this is the evasion of
the bridges which might cost a lot more to the contractor. So in my opinion
alignment has to be rechecked by the external authority.

2. Protection work on the downhill side of the road: As this road is being
constructed in a hilly area and there is a lot of excavation involved from which
contracted is getting a lot of stones. So in order do the cost cutting contractor is
compromising the quality by erecting the crate wire wall of around 20mts height
instead of RCC retaining walls. And as per the standards you won't find any
clause of constructing such high walls with crate wires.

Secondly the stone masonry walls which are being constructed does have the
required thickness at the top and bottom . So in this case also contractor is doing
a lot of cost cutting.

3. Protection work on the uphill side of the road: The average height of the
excavation on the uphill side of the road is around 15mts.And the height of
protection walls which is being constructed by the contractor is around 2.5 to
3mts. So the total left out unprotected height shall be 12mts, which can be very
dangerous in the rainy seasons because boulders can fall on the moving vehicles
and a lot of lives can be lost. In this regard wire mesh work can be done to
protect the left out height. Moreover the standard on which the wall has been
constructed does not match any design criteria.

4. Use of paraphets instead of steel guard rails: Contractor is constructing the

concrete paraphets on the top of the stone masonry and there is no bond
between the paraphets and stone masonry to resist the force which will be
generated when the vehicle gets collided with the paraphets. So due to the non-
resistance of the paraphet towards the force(generated by the collided
vehicle) ,vehicles after colliding with the paraphets will fall deep into the gorges
of the hills and lot of people can lose their lives.

Moreover nowadays paraphets are redundant on the national highways and

NHAI is providing guard rails on a two lane highways too .And it's a four lane
expressway, so how can it be used in it. So in this case also contractor is doing a
lot of cost cutting.

Being a responsible citizen of the country I thought that it is my moral

responsibility to address this matter to you ,so that requisite action can be taken
in order to make a better and a safe expressway for tomorrow. Please find
attached some of the photographs of the road construction which is being
carried out for your reference. I hope for an early response from your side.

Thanking You,

Yours sincerely

Abhay Thakur

The White Haven

Shivnagar,Mehli

Pin: 171009