NH-24 underpass delayed further

While the project’s deadline,after missing the earlier one of July,was set for December 31 last year,officials in the Public Works Department (PWD) said the department is yet to begin construction of the underpass near Pandav Nagar,delaying the project by at least another seven to eight months.

The project —to double the highway’s carriage capacity from the current four lanes to eight lanes — was announced more than two years ago and was scheduled to begin on August 10,2006. The plan was to widen the stretch from Noida crossing to Khichripur and build an underpass at the congested Pandav Nagar crossing.

“We had widened the four-lane stretch to eight lanes and had thrown it open for public use in October 2008,but work on the underpass is being taken up now as we couldn’t do everything simultaneously,” said a PWD official.

Besides west-bound traffic in the trans-Yamuna area,NH-24 will also have to cope with added traffic flow during 2010 Commonwealth Games. The highway leads to several major Games venues in East Delhi,and the proposal for doubling the number of lanes was for catering to the increased traffic.

With the project delayed by over two years now and the Lok Sabha polls to be announced in the next couple of months,Urban Development and Finance minister A K Walia stepped in on Friday and asked the department to begin work on the project fast. While the government is already facing a deficit of Rs 6,000 crore for completion of Games projects,the department has reportedly been told to expedite work. “We have given a rough estimate to the Finance department and will begin work by the end of this month,” the official said.

The project had earlier run into trouble as the slums around the area had to be relocated by the Delhi Development Authority. This delayed work by about eight months,officials claimed.

While the settlements were finally removed by April 2007,steel and bitumen costs had gone up,leading to a revised sanction being sought from the Union Ministry of Surface Transport. The agency has already spent around Rs 12 crore on the project,while the sanctioned cost is about Rs 17 crore.