kullu while the national highway authority of india is all set to open the kiratpurnerchowk section of the kiratpurmanali national highway the new highway does not have requisite footpaths underpasses and overbridges at many of the stretches the nhai has set june 30 as the deadline for completing the kiratpurnerchowk section of the national highway and is likely to allow vehicle movement on the stretch on trial basis in the coming weeks according to residents the highway would no doubt cut down the travel time but it would also create problems for them as a lot of work essential for public movement still remains to be done there are no footpaths no overbridges or underpasses in many areas once the highway opens completely it will be difficult for children to walk to their schools located near the highways said rakesh kumar a resident of jhanduta in bilaspur district according to kumar overbridges are a must as many residents have farming land on both sides of the highway the nhai should construct underpasses and foot overbridges at all the stretches of the highway for allowing public to move freely many pathways including to cremation grounds have also been cut by the highway but the nhai seems to be in a hurry to open the highway without paying any heed to the problems residents would face said kumar adding that toilet facilities have also not been created on the highway according to madan sharma the general secretary of bilaspurbased fourlane visthapit and prabahavit samiti fvps the nhai also did not take any measures to replace bird nests and restore water sources which were destroyed during the fourlaning work replacing bird nests with artificial nests and restoring water sources including ponds were part of the 26 conditions set by the state forest department for the fourlaning project sadly the nhai is still to comply with these conditions said sharma the local shopkeepers and traders of bilaspur are also a worried lot according to bilaspur traders association which met recently over 1000 shopkeepers of would be affected due to the opening of the highway the traders fear that they would lose customers as the new highway does not touch the bilaspur town the traders have asked the government to provide them designated places along the highway so that they could start their business there the highway will reduce road length between kiratpur to manali to 197 km from the existing 232 km reducing chandigarhmanali travel time by at least 3 hours out of 197 kms 87 kms of road stretch will be converted from the twolane to fourlane a total 37 bridges and 14 tunnels will be built on the highway 5 of them under bilaspur district