Principal Secretary, Public Works Department, of Himachal, Jagdish Sharma and Principal Secretary to Chief Minister Sanjay Kundu on Monday called on Union Minister for Road Transport and Highways Nitin Gadkari and apprised him about the progress of various National Highway (NH) projects in the state at New Delhi.

Sharma apprised the Minister about the status of Shimla bypass, Solan -Parwanoo and various other NH projects in the State and requested the Ministry and NHAI to take steps to speed up the pace of these NH projects.

The Union Minister gave directions to the officers of the Ministry to take necessary steps for making the Shimla bypass four lane highway. He advised the State Government to provide speedy solutions to prevent delays and directed  the State Government  to complete all actions pending on its behalf like land acquisition, completing procedures regarding building structures.

During the meeting, Gadkari was informed that the contractor has completed 85 percent work of Parwanoo-Solan NH. While directing the NHAI to complete the remaining work, he advised the State Government to expedite land transfer of pending three patches of this NH which had largely held up the completion of this project .

On the issue of maintenance of NH in which the work had not commenced by the contractor, Gadkari gave directions to Ministry and NHAI to develop a mechanism to provide funds to the State Government so that the State PWD could maintain the NH till the time the contractor commences his work. Kundu said that ropeways could prove a robust and viable mode of transport in the hill state and requested the Centre to provide support for ropeway projects in the state.