‘Delay caused loss of hundreds of crores’: L-G orders probe into Barapullah Phase-III flyover project

The move comes following a recommendation by Chief Minister Rekha Gupta, said officials.

The matter was first discussed in a meeting of the Expenditure Finance Committee (EFC), chaired by the CM on July 28. The EFC recommended a “thorough enquiry with regard to the approval and acceptance of arbitration awards by authorities non-competent to accept; delay in the execution of project and fixing responsibility of erring officers alongwith directions to Public Works Department (PWD) to provide complete records of the matter to ACB.”

The project — a 3.5-km four-lane elevated corridor — was originally approved in 2011. The new elevated corridor is meant to merge with the existing Barapullah flyover at Sarai Kale Khan.

In December 2014, an amount of Rs 1,260.63 crore was allocated for the project. The construction was awarded to Larsen & Toubro (L&T) in April 2015. The project was supposed to be completed by October 2017. Even as a decade has passed, the project — plagued by land acquisition issues, delays in tree-cutting permissions, and alleged departmental mismanagement — is yet to be completed.

Of the original estimate, Rs 1,238.68 crore has been spent so far, said officials, adding that the new estimate is around Rs 1,330 crore. The project is now expected to be completed by June next year. Earlier this month, the PWD had said it received permission from the Central Empowered Committee to fell 250 trees that are required for the project to progress.

L&T did not comment on the matter.

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