Road repairs in a fortnight (8.7.10)

Geetanjali GayatriTribune News Service
Chandigarh, July 7

A day after the deluge that inundated Ambala and Kurukshetra, Haryana today stepped up measures to restore normalcy. Traffic on the national and state highways was restored.
While the Irrigation Department suspended drawing water from the Bhakra Main Line and diverted flood waters from the SYL to the Narwana branch, it may take another 24 hours to plug the breach. Power supply to affected areas can be restored only after the water-level recedes. The supply is expected to be restored by tomorrow.
The Public Heath Department has installed gensets to pump out water from inundated areas of Ambala while canal-based water supply has been restored. Officials of the Public Works (Buildings and Roads) Department maintain that it will take nearly a fortnight to carry out repairs on the damaged national highways.
Principal Secretary, Irrigation, SS Dhillon, said the discharge from the BML was down to zero with the state seeking suspension of the 500 cusecs flowing into Haryana till yesterday.
“While there is 7,000 cusecs of water in the SYL as of now, the Narwana branch is also full to capacity with nearly 4,000 cusecs of water. Our effort is to bring down the water level in the two canals from 11,000 cusecs to 7,500 cusecs.
This may take 24 more hours and it’s only after this is achieved that we can plug the breach,” he said. The Engineer-in-Chief, Public Works (Band R) Department, Mahesh Kumar, said: “We are keeping a watch on the waters from the SYL threatening to flood the Ambala-Kaithal highway.” Claiming that power supply to 90 per cent of Ambala cantt had been restored, the MD, Uttar Haryana Bijli Vitran Nigam, said: “To avoid the threat of electrocution, our team carries out patrolling of 11 KV lines, checks them and declares them safe before power can be restored. Our teams are on the job.” The restoration of power from the 220 KV Dhulkot sub-station, the 60 KV sub-station at Shahbad and another in Ismailabad was likely to be accomplished tomorrow, he added. While life limps back to normal in Ambala and Kurukshetra, it may take a few days for normalcy to return to these areas. That is, if the weather gods continue to smile and there are no more rains over the next few days.