Pathankot-Mandi highway snarls and mishaps mount as four-laning stalls

Daily traffic jams on the narrow Pathankot-Mandi National Highway are now a routine frustration for commuters, tourists and residents across the lower hills. Queues build almost every day, and the situation worsens on weekends and during the tourist season, when the road's limited width can no longer absorb the growing number of vehicles.

The danger is not just delay. A motorcyclist was recently killed near Gaggal airport after a bus struck him on a narrow stretch, and similar crashes have been reported near Paror, Sungal and Maranda. Local reports say more than 10 people have died in road accidents on the highway over the past three years, a toll that has made the corridor a growing worry for families who rely on it.

The congestion has spilled into everyday life. Bottlenecks at Baijnath, Paprola, Maranda, Nagrota Bagwan, 53 Mile, Mattor and Gaggal have become familiar trouble spots. Some travellers have reportedly missed flights from Gaggal airport to Delhi and Chandigarh after getting stuck in prolonged jams, while shopkeepers and businesses along the route say footfall and deliveries have suffered.

Residents say enforcement has not kept pace with the problem. They argue that traffic police are thinly spread and absent from several of the most congested points. The Baijnath SDM has said constables have been posted at various locations to regulate movement, but acknowledged that the road's narrow profile and the sharp rise in traffic on this busy hill route make management hard, especially on weekends.

The long-term fix is supposed to be four-laning. The Centre has already announced the widening of the Pathankot-Mandi corridor, yet the project has reportedly slipped by nearly six years. Land acquisition for the Paror-Padhar stretch, roughly 70 km long and budgeted at Rs 8,000 crore, has not yet begun, largely because the National Highways Authority of India has not finalised the Detailed Project Report.

That delay matters well beyond the highway itself. The road serves residents of six districts in the lower hills, and every month without progress keeps commuters, students, patients and goods transporters exposed to both congestion and crashes. Until the widening moves forward, the case for immediate traffic-management steps, such as more deployment at choke points and faster clearance of accident-prone sections, grows stronger.

For more on the reporting behind this story, see the original Tribune report.

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