Underpasses or no underpasses: UT Admn,CHB hold contrary views

A senior official of the CHB said,“The finalisation of the financial bids against a standardised basic design of 2009 was scrapped. Now,the tenders will again be floated. Also,out of the eight underpasses that were to be constructed,now,the execution of only two underpasses will be carried out first. There is no delay from our side,whenever we get the required funds we will begin construction”.

However,for the UT Administration,metro seems to have grabbed their attention and underpasses put on the back burner.

UT Adviser K K Sharma said,“At present we are focusing on the Metro and the underpasses will be constructed only if required”.

“I agree that the work on these underpasses haven’t begun. These underpasses need to be carefully planned,keeping in view the requirements. The provision of underpasses comes under the five year plan,if required we will work on constructing an underpass. Meanwhile,the Detailed Project Report for the Metro project has been finished and sent by the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation. A series of meetings have been held at a very senior level and the plan is to execute it in Mohali,Panchkula and Mullanpur,” Sharma added.

In fact,this stand of the UT Administration is quite contrary to what it had announced after the meeting held recently with the officials of the Planning Commission in New Delhi. At that time,the Administration officials had claimed that the construction of underpasses will be taken up on priority.

Another senior official of the CHB said,“The basic expense of building the eight underpasses is Rs 261.81 crore. We have not received any funds from the Administration. At this stage,no work has begun.”

The Administration had relegated the job of constructing eight underpasses to the CHB. The underpasses were to be constructed at Piccadilly Chowk,Kisan Chowk,Press Chowk,Transport Chowk,Matka Chowk,Tribune Chowk,Cricket Stadium Chowk and ISP Chowk. The project was incited in 2007,when ‘Expression of Interest’ was called.