- Electric poles stand in the middle of a new road in Paonta Sahib, Himachal Pradesh
- The road connects Badripur, Kishanpura, Santokhgarh and Puruwala in Sirmaur district
- Poles were not removed during road widening, says BJP MLA Sukhram Chaudhary
Come to Himachal and take a driving test on this 'electric road'. We are not saying this, but the road itself is inviting both drivers and danger. In Himachal's Paonta Sahib, electric poles stand in the middle of a newly constructed road, raising safety concerns among drivers.
In a viral video, an influencer takes a dig at the construction and praises the built, but through satire. In his video, the man calls out to America and lauds India for creating a one-of-a-kind road.
"Kya kehta tha America, kaun ho bey tum. Aaj hum kehte hai, kaun hai bey tu? Ye dekho sadak ke beecho beech humne khamba laga diya hai (What did America say, 'who are you'? Today we ask, 'Who are you'? Look, we have put poles in the middle of the road)," the man says.
The man then shows people crisscrossing through the poles and calls it a driving test.
"People who cannot see clearly after a couple of drinks will also be able to see these tall poles. Lovely! I am proud of my country for creating such idols," he adds.
The man further claims that he has especially come from Haryana to this specimen.
"This is helping boost Himachal's tourism. This is how the economy grows," he concludes.
The road connects Badripur, Kishanpura, Santokhgarh and Puruwala of Sirmaur district. According to former power minister and BJP MLA, Sukhram Chaudhary, the electric line is at least 25 years old, and the poles would stand outside the road. However, when a road widening project was planned, nobody considered dismantling the electric line and it wasn't included in the execution.
"I have requested the concerned department to shift these poles. However, they claim not to have enough funds to execute this," he said.
Himachal Pradesh seems to have taken a leaf from Bihar's book on road construction, where trees stand in the middle of the 7.48 km long Patna-Gaya main road.
In Bihar's Jehanabad, 50km away from the capital Patna, when the district administration undertook a Rs 100 crore road widening project, they approached the forest department, seeking permission to remove trees. But their demand was rejected. In return, the forest department demanded compensation for 14 hectares of forest land. However, the district administration could not fulfil the request, and they made a bizarre move - they created a road around the trees.
