13052026-CT-01.qxd 5/13/2026 12:41 AM Page 1 c m y b Chandigarh tribune HEATWAVE APPROACHING, MERCURY SET TO SOAR CITY NURSE GETS FLORENCE NIGHTINGALE AWARD ANJALI SIVARAMAN TURNS AMRITA SHER-GIL IN AMRI Maximum temp is set to climb by 6 degrees over 7 days, pushing Tricity towards heatwave conditions. P3 Poonam has been conferred with Florence Nightingale Award by President Droupadi Murmu. P3 Priyanka Chopra, Jaideep Ahlawat, Jim Sarbh come together in Mira Nair’s ambitious biopic Amri. P4 » » PARTLY CLOUDY MAX 36°C | MIN 22°C YESTERDAY MAX 34.6°C | MIN 22.8°C SUNSET WEDNESDAY 7.06 PM SUNRISE THURSDAY 5.32 AM » WEDNESDAY | 13 MAY 2026 | CHANDIGARH FORECAST /THETRIBUNECHD FACEBOOK/CHANDIGARHTRIBUNE Day before HC hearing, Admn Punjab clears decks for Mohali-Rajpura railway awards Tribune flyover work link land acquisition Central Government clears ~147.98-crore bid of Singla Constructions Nitin Jain TIMELINE Tribune News Service Chandigarh, May 12 A day before the Punjab and Haryana High Court is scheduled to hear a fresh petition challenging the Tribune Chowk flyover project, the Chandigarh Administration on Tuesday awarded the flyover work. The letter of acceptance (LoA) was issued by the UT Engineering Department to Chandigarh-based Singla Constructions Ltd after the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MoRTH) conveyed its formal approval for awarding the project to the lowest bidder. The project has been awarded at a quoted bid price of Rs 147.98 crore, exclusive of GST, which is nearly 31.06 per cent below the estimated bid cost in the tender. The company has been asked to sign the contract agreement within the prescribed period and furnish a performance security of Rs 4.43 crore along with an additional performance security of Rs 4.73 crore within 30 AIR QUALITY INDEX CHANDIGARH 72 PANCHKULA 85 401-500 301-400 201-300 101-200 51-100 0-50 SEVERE VERY POOR POOR MODERATE SATISFACTORY GOOD WHAT’S ON 2016: Project conceived FEB 2019: Sanctioned at ~183.74 crore NOV 2019: Work awarded; HC stay imposed APR 2024: High Court vacates stay days of receipt of the LoA. The award came shortly after the Regional Office of the MoRTH in Chandigarh informed the UT Engineering Department that the competent authority had approved seeking additional performance security from the L-1 bidder because the quoted bid was substantially lower than the tendered cost. The Ministry also extended AUG 2025: Revised sanction of ~247.07 crore approved OCT 2025: Fresh tenders floated MAY 12, 2026: Work awarded to Singla Constructions Ltd MAY 13, 2026: Fresh HC hearing on PIL challenge the sanction validity till May 31 and directed the UT Administration to issue the LoA on a priority basis. The project had remained stalled for nearly five years due to litigation over tree felling and alleged violation of the city’s Master Plan. It was originally sanctioned in February 2019 at Rs 183.74 crore and work was awarded later that year, but construc- tion was halted after the Punjab and Haryana High Court stayed the project following a PIL challenging tree cutting at the site. The stay was vacated in April 2024, after which the Chandigarh Administration revived the project and floated fresh tenders following revised approval of Rs 247.07 crore from the Centre. A fresh PIL pending before Defacing of PU nameplates leads to fresh controversy Tribune News Service Chandigarh, May 12 The defacement of nameplates and signage on the Panjab University campus to oppose the non-inclusion of Punjabi language, initiated by Sath, a campus political group, has irked physically challenged students. The student group defaced newly installed nameplates, with names in Hindi, English and Braille, after the PU authorities did not respond to their demand for inclusion of Punjabi language on these boards. They protesting stu- Student group Sath had sought inclusion of Punjabi language on campus boards dents also defaced the plates carrying names in Braille, which angered physically challenged students. They maintained that they were not opposing the inclusion of Punjabi language on the nameplates and signage, as demanded by Sath, but were against the defacement of signage with information in Braille. The physically challenged students and executive members of the Equal Opportunity Cell submitted a representation to the Vice-Chancellor. Earlier, Sath had submitted a memorandum to the Equal Opportunity Cell, seeking the inclusion of Punjabi on new signboards being installed under the ongoing accessibility and infrastructure revamp drive on the campus. The students said the new boards put up outside rooms of various departments had names in Hindi at the top, followed by English and Braille. In the memorandum, the student continued on page 2 APNI MANDI Chandigarh: Sectors 15, 40, 46 Please send information about events in tricity at: whatson@tribunemail.com 11-yr-old girl dies as SUV hits auto Panchkula, May 12 An eleven-year-old girl, Mausami, died and four members of her family, sustained serious injuries when the auto-rickshaw they were travelling in was hit by a speeding SUV from behind on the Sector 11-4 road around 1am today. The police said the autorickshaw was being driven by the girl’s father Raj Kumar. Locals rushed the injured to the Sector 6 Civil Hospital. Mausami’s condition deteriorated after which she was referred to the GMCH-32. She died hours later. The injured included two boys aged 7 and 4. The driver of the SUV, bearing a Punjab registration number, fled the spot. The Sector 2 police said the investigation was on to trace the absconding driver. — TNS Piotr Antoni Switalski, Head of Mission, Embassy of the Republic of Poland in New Delhi, with H Rajesh Prasad, UT Chief Secretary, at the Government Museum and Art Gallery, Sector10, in Chandigarh on Tuesday. TRIBUNE PHOTO: VICKY Exhibition explores ‘humanist modernity’ of Maciej Nowicki’s unbuilt Chandigarh Parbina Rashid Tribune News Service Chandigarh, May 12 Le Corbusier and French style have long been synonymous with City Beautiful. However, if one was to dig a little deeper, there emerges a Polish connection—one that lives on in bits and pieces. The Chandigarh Art Gallery and Museum, Sector 10, cele- brated the connection as an august team from Poland and Chandigarh looked back at the journey of the Polish architect Maciej Nowicki with an exhibition titled “Humanist Modernity: The Unbuilt Chandigarh of Maciej Nowicki”. The exhibition showcases the life and works of Nowicki, whose visionary ideas con- tributed to the early planning of Chandigarh alongside American planner Albert Mayer in 1949. Through original drawings, master plans and archival material, the exhibition presents Nowicki’s unbuilt vision of Chandigarh centred on climate-sensitive planning, green spaces and communityoriented urban design. continued on page 2 c m y b the High Court has challenged the flyover on grounds relating to heritage concerns, Master Plan provisions and environmental impact, including the proposed felling of nearly 700 trees. The High Court is scheduled to take up the matter on Wednesday. Despite the fresh litigation, the Administration has pushed ahead with the execution process, maintaining that the project is crucial to decongesting Tribune Chowk, one of the busiest intersections in Chandigarh through which over 1.5 lakh vehicles pass every day. The 1.65-km-long project includes a 1,442-metre sixlane flyover on Dakshin Marg, a redesigned rotary and a 519-metre underpass on Purv Marg. The project also includes service roads, slip roads, footpaths, drainage works and traffic management infrastructure. Once work begins, the project is targeted for completion within 30 months. Speaking to The Tribune, Union Minister for Road Transport and continued on page 2 Tribune News Service Chandigarh, May 12 Punjab has cleared a critical bottleneck in land acquisition for the Mohali-Rajpura new railway line (18.11 km) by submitting mandatory 20-A schedules of all three SubDivisional Magistrates (SDMs) to Northern Railway, paving the way for formal land acquisition proceedings. The Rs 443-crore project is to be fully funded by the Centre. In a parallel development, Punjab has also nominated a competent authority for land acquisition (CALA) and an arbitrator for the strategically interconnected Rajpura bypass line for Dedicated Freight Corridor Corporation of India Limited (DFCCIL) — a 13.46-km Northern Railway project from New Shambhu to Kauli station. A senior government functionary confirmed both developments to The Tribune. PUNJAB SUBMITS ACTION TAKEN REPORT In its action-taken report submitted to the Northern Railway, the Punjab Government has informed the Chief Engineer (Construction/Special), ~443-CR PROJECT (To be fully funded by the Centre) ■ 53.84 hectares to be acquired ■ Project sanctioned on Sept 23, 2024, after remaining on paper for five decades Northern Railway, that all three SDMs of Bassi Pathana, Fatehgarh Sahib and Mohali had dispatched the requisite schedules. The development follows a month after Northern Railway Chief Engineer Dilip Kumar Mishra flagged on April 7 that the SDMs had ■ 18.11-km line will provide the Malwa region its first direct rail link to Chandigarh, eliminating a 66-km Ambala detour ■ Will covering villages across Mohali, Fatehgarh Sahib and Patiala ■ The line likely to become operational within two or three years been sitting on the signed schedules for months despite repeated follow-ups. Additional Chief Secretary (Revenue) Anurag Verma had on April 13 directed the Deputy Commissioners of Fatehgarh Sahib and Mohali to personally intervene and report continued on page 2