Statue, politics block the road

Today, the drive is far from fast, smooth or even comfortable. More than four kms of the crucial Maduravoyil (near Chennai) to Poonamallee segment of the GQ remains a bottleneck with skeletons of half-demolished buildings adorning either side of the original narrow, crowded two-lane national highway.

A few kilometres ahead, a hospital owned by a doctor refuses to budge from the GQ’s path for a proposed grade separator and a service road connecting to Poonamallee right on top of the hospital.

The hospital sought and got a stay on its demolition in the Madras High Court 18 months ago. The litigation is still pending. Right across the hospital, the popular Saveetha Dental College and Hospital, said to be an AIADMK sympathiser, has refused to have its compound wall (built on peremboke land) demolished to accommodate the GQ.

Further ahead, the segment near Rajiv Gandhi’s memorial at Sriperumbudur, is incomplete. ‘‘Hands off’’ has been ‘‘instructions from Delhi’’ to a NHAI request to shift the memorial’s compound wall inside by 10 m to accommodate re-laying of pipelines and the drainage.

Adding to NHAI’s headaches, stubborn Youth Congressmen insist that if the nearby Indira Gandhi statue (garlanded by Rajiv Gandhi minutes before a human bomb killed him) right in the middle of the GQ’s path is to be shifted, then it should be reinstalled as a bronze statue.

Problems are aplenty for the NHAI and its contractor M/s Afcons Infrastructure Ltd. Even six years after the launch of the project, squabbling politicians and evictions hinder a highway that would carry traffic load threatening to increase by 25 per cent every year. ‘‘It is a mess. We have problems from all sides. The Maduravoyil segment has proved to be most difficult. There are more number of buildings, as it is closer to the city. There are so many structures to demolish and people who are trying to save their homes or get more compensation have been difficult to evict,’’ pointed out an NHAI official coordinating the project.

As if these string of hurdles were not enough, the NHAI now has to face a whining contractor, who, quite fed up with the non-availability of a smooth stretch of land, has slowed down work and knocked on the doors of the three-member arbitration committee in Delhi for compensation for time loss and revised project estimate.

The original value of the project stood at Rs 164.38 crore, excluding several crores of rupees that would be spent for land acquisition. ‘‘When we finally complete the project, the cost is likely to shoot up well over Rs 200 crore (excluding land settlements),’’ said the NHAI official.

Local politics has also taken a toll on the project, especially in areas falling within peremboke land and that owned by the state government. Deciding to make life tough for Baalu, who belongs to the DMK, the ruling AIADMK is seen to be dragging its feet on handing over land.

Not just that, ‘‘we have to depend on the state government for everything—right from evictions, law and order problems, shifting EB (Electricity Board) poles and relaying pipelines. But, the GQ has fallen a victim to the AIADMK-DMK politics,’’ pointed out the official.

As a result, many portions along the 56.59-km GQ are glaring unfinished patches, causing traffic jams along the busy highway, kicking up thick swirling dust. According to NHAI statistics, 4.2 km are affected by ‘‘full obstruction’’ and 1.3 km by ‘‘hindrances.’’ Not on paper, but yet to be settled are several land disputes.

In fact, acquisition of land in the handed-over stretches remains the major constraint. ‘‘Our hands are tied. We have to just sit and wait for our lawyers to sort out the various land disputes in the court,’’ said the Highways official. While the project was originally to be completed in December 2003, the revised schedule is June 2006. The official doubts if the project can be completed before January 2007.