While passing through the Sanjauli-Dhalli Tunnel (Shimla) daily during the office timings, I am deeply perturbed by the plight of commuters walking through the tunnel. The road is totally damaged since rainy season and there is dust all around.
It is so much suffocating to the people that most of them are keeping their hands or handkerchiefs on nose and mouth to minimize dust particles reaching lungs. The situation becomes worse when there is traffic jam inside as the signal lights do not operate on most days.
Since Britishers, the Government of free India did not develop an alternate route for the commuters to cross this section. Even local transport service is negligible here. Though election timings have seen a quick tarring work on Sanjauli side and as well as on Dhalli side, the tunnel is kept as it is, despite knowing the possibility of suffocation in such closed places.
The small area can be repaired within an hour or so during the period of no-entry twice daily for more than 3 hours. In the noise of election campaign, the voice of unorganized ordinary people is missing somewhere. Reporting this matter with a hope to make authorities notice the grave problem!
the infrastructure developed is the cheapest possible , boards signs and coal tar gets destroyed in one season . not even one stretch of simla roads are made with international standards , such is the plight of hill stations
I am a local resident of Dhalli byepass so as assumed I was supposed to cross this tunnel every day to go to school then to college and after that I left Shimla for living. From the past 18 years I have seen this tunnel in similar condition as it is today. Even if I come on alternate months I wish that something should have been done to uplift the worst condition of this tunnel but much to my surprise people have started adjusting with dust and traffic but no authority has ever sensed about repairing it. I can’t even imagine that this tunnel is the connecting path to upper or old Himachal. I can’t believe that no political party ever sensed that and nobody in the higher authority can do anything about it. Its just matter of civic sense which these guys have lost in pride of power they posses.
now , 2014- present the tunnel is all repaired