Public protests, differences within civic body stall 3 bridge projects in Vadodara

In the case of Vasna, residents claim the flyover is no longer needed as peripheral roads are now complete and the traffic has reduced since 2019-20 when a survey was undertaken for the project. They fear the flyover will create fresh traffic woes.

Recently, a group of residents handed over a memorandum to Chief Minister Bhupendra Patel, who was on a visit to the city, to protest against the Vasna flyover commissioned by the Vadodara Municipal Corporation (VMC). The memorandum signed by around 700 families also sought withdrawal of a bridge over the Narmada river canal coming up at Bhayli area on the same grounds.

“The (Vasna) bridge was proposed as per a survey conducted in 2019-20 when the peripheral areas (now promoted as new Alkapuri) was undergoing a massive real-estate development and there was traffic congestion owing to the large-scale construction and obstruction of the arterial roads. But now, the peripheral roads are complete and the traffic has reduced since 2019-20,” a resident said.

The proposal was approved by the Gujarat Municipal Finance Board in 2019. The pre-qualification bids were opened on October 21, 2023, as per VMC records that has described the 700-metre bridge to be a “necessity for the future” on the 24-metre-road.

In March 2014, the Standing Committee awarded the contract to M/s Rajkamal Builders Infrastructure, which emerged as the lowest bidder at Rs 53.39 crore.

A VMC official said both projects were designed keeping in mind the “future developments” in the area. The Bhayli bridge is expected to join the upcoming Delhi-Mumbai Expressway.

But residents beg to differ. They say the bridge will prove detrimental to businesses operating in the entire stretch facing the main road.

Earlier this month, a delegation of residents, including architect Jyoti Gill, met the city engineer along with Akota BJP MLA Chaitanya Desai for a solution. At the meeting, the residents urged the VMC to conduct a fresh survey. A resident cited the 2019-20 survey conducted by the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research that recommends that the flyover can be constructed on a road width of minimum 30 metres. A copy of the said survey was also handed over to the CM.

“The civic body has claimed that the road is 24 metres wide but when we measured the road, it is about 22 metres. It will leave no place for a service road or parking. Instead of making people’s life easy, it will end up adding to troubles. One needs to consider the larger good in urban planning and flyovers are constructed keeping in mind the traffic needs but this road does not have any such problems,” Gill said.

But VMC Executive Engineer (bridge project), Ravindrakumar Pandya, said, “The Vasna road is 24 metres wide, except for a stretch of 50 meters, which is about 22 metres. The proposal is of 2019-20 and surveys are projected for the future. We are building according to the width of the road. It will be a three-lane bridge which will be 11.4 metres wide (entire bridge),” Pandya said.

He added that the bridge over the Bhayli canal, too, has been proposed for future needs of the area, which is witnessing a real-estate expansion. “Currently, traffic has to make a 1.5-kilometre roundabout of the Bhayli canal and our request to SSNNL seeking siphoning was also denied earlier. So, we have proposed to build the bridge within the roadline. The length is around 600 metres… In the future, this road will be one of the entry points to the Delhi-Mumbai Expressway at Samlaya.”

The Bhayli-Sun Pharma bridge over the SSNNL canal was approved in March 2024 by the standing committee. “Bil and Bhayli areas were included under VMC in 2020 as part of TP 5 and has a 30-metre road through which the SSNNL Gaukhana Distributary canal passes… At the time the area was developed under the Vadodara Urban Development Authority, a request had been made to siphon the canal in order to allow a straight road joining the area to Sun Pharma road. However, SSNNL, which manages the dam project on Narmada, did not find the siphon option feasible on technical grounds,” the proposal stated.

In 2021, it was decided to proceed with the bridge to make it easier to travel towards Sun Pharma Road. SSNNL granted permission in October 2022 based on the design submitted and thereafter, the State Roads & Buildings department, Gandhinagar, also approved the bridge design that would be around 697 metres long and 16.50 metres wide, including a span portion of 37 metres over the canal and additional spans of 30 metres each on the roads on either side of the canal. While the width of the road on the Bhayli side is 30 metres, the Sun Pharma side of the canal road is 12 metres wide, as per the proposal.

Estimated to be built at a cost of Rs 50.76 crore, the e-tendering of the bridge was done in 2023 and M/s Rajkamal Builders Infrastructure was chosen at Rs 67.03 crore bid price, about 32 per cent higher than the estimated cost.

For the Abacus flyover — the third bridge in trouble — the approach road from Amit Nagar Circle to the Vadodara-Ahmedabad Expressway was notified for closure by the traffic police for two years since November 22, 2024.

The original proposal of January 25, 2024 was for an Engineering, Procurement, and Construction flyover over the 30-metre road known as Abacus Circle. The work was awarded to Dineshchandra Agarwal Infracon for Rs 56.56 crore. However, it ran into a controversy after the Municipal Commissioner had, in September 2024, proposed to approve the joining of the upcoming bridge to the Urmi bridge due to the “close proximity” of the two bridges that could leave “little space between the 250-metre approach of the Abacus flyover and the incline of the Urmi bridge”.

As per the proposal — last put forth before the Standing Committee in December 2024, the “merging of the two bridges with demolition of Urmi side of the bridge would cost an additional Rs 51.08 crore, taking the total cost to Rs 120.71 crore, including the cost of shifting underground and overhead services”. The proposal has been deferred following a lack of consensus within the standing committee. The length of the flyover, if merged, would be about 1.5 kilometres, including the inclines on two sides.