HC orders 3 Himachal districts to remove encroachments along Kiratpur-Manali highway
In an order in an ongoing case on July 21, Chief Justice G S Sandhawalia also directed the DCs of the three districts to submit reports on the status of encroachments along the highway in these two districts and take action.
The court ordered the National Highway Authority of India (NHAI) to file a fresh affidavit regarding the provisions of the National Highways (Land and Traffic) Control Act, 2002, on encroachments and as "the state would have to take active steps to prevent encroachments along the highway".
In the affidavit, the court ordered NHAI to provide details, including "who is to supervise the removal of encroachments and to what extent construction can be raised and with whose permission".
The court directed NHAI to include in the affidavit information on the "extent of the distance any construction activity has to maintain from the centre of the highway so that necessary guidelines can be laid down".
The HC observed in its order that state agencies and NHAI have an obligation to maintain the new highway and not permit "commercial establishments to come up and reduce the efficacy of the highway on which crores of rupees have been spent".
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"The whole purpose of an easy movement for long-distance commuters on the highway should not be frustrated by encroachments," the HC observed.
Bilaspur deputy commissioner Rahul Kumar, who was present during the hearing, tendered an unconditional apology to the court and informed through an affidavit that 49 encroachments were removed from the highway in Ghumarwin, Jhanduta, Naina Devi, and Sadar areas of the Bilaspur district.
A 50km length of the Kiratpur-Manali stretch falls in Bilaspur district.
Expressing disappointment over an affidavit filed by the Bilaspur DC, the high court, during a previous hearing on July 1, ordered him to appear in person in the court and explain the details of encroachments along the Kiratpur-Manali highway.
The court order came on a petition filed in 2023 by Madan Sharma, the general secretary of Fourlane Visthapit and Prabahavit Samiti (FVPS), an organisation that works for the people displaced by highway projects.
The petitioner had stated that the lack of footpaths, steel barricades, retaining walls, breast walls, and foot overbridges made the Kiratpur-Nerchowk highway highly accident-prone and unsafe for users. It may be mentioned that the NHAI recently identified as many as 91 illegal encroachments, including 50 temporary and 41 permanent structures along the highway that falls in the Bilaspur district, and served notices to encroachers.
The illegal structures include hotels, shops, dhabas, liquor vends, commercial establishments, and many houses, some of which have been built almost on the edge of the highway, resulting in the creation of accident-prone areas. Opened to traffic in Aug 2023, the Kiratpur-Nerchowk section was inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on March 11, 2024.
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