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A flyover that took two decades to be completed
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SME Times News Bureau | 18 May, 2019
For the residents of north Delhi, Rani Jhansi flyover, which was
inaugurated last year, is a classic example of how a government project
should not be executed -- with cost overruns and painfully long delays
in completion. The flyover is one of the slowest ever constructed, with
the project spanning two decades and witnessing a cost escalation of
around Rs 600 crore.
Infamous for missing deadlines, the flyover
was finally inaugurated in October last year. Due to inordinate delays,
the project witnessed several fold cost escalation from the initial
estimates of Rs 178 crore to Rs 725 crore.
Conceived in 1998 and
commissioned by the erstwhile unified Municipal Corporation of Delhi in
2006, the 1.6-km-long flyover from St Stephens Hospital to Filmistaan
Cinema, was originally scheduled to be completed by September 2010,
ahead of the Commonwealth Games in the national Capital.
The
flyover, which starts at Filmistan Cinema, passes through the congested
stretches of Azad Market Chowk, Pul Bangash and DCM Chowk. Officials
said that the flyover benefits over five lakh commuters who take this
stretch.
With the flyover getting operational, the residents of
the nearby areas have heaved a sigh of relief last year as they finally
saw the never ending construction work coming to a stop. "I was just
happy to see the construction work come to an end. The exorbitant time
taken for construction can only be attributed to the apathy of the
authorities' in-charge. Many shops were demolished to make way for it.
Dust would fill your lungs and during monsoons the site became a
breeding ground for mosquitoes," said Gulab Singh, a resident of Bara
Hindu Rao area.
The flyover has decongested the roads going
towards Kamla Market and Delhi Ridge and has connected Pusa Road, Upper
Ridge and Rohtak Road through Filmistan Cinema, DCM Chowk, Azad Market
and Roshanara Road extending to ISBT (Kashmere Gate), providing a major
relief to the heavily congested area.
The flyover has drastically
reduced the travel time for the commuters who used to be stuck in jams
stretching for about an hour near Kashmere Gate, Yamuna Bazaar and Sadar
Bazaar areas.
Officials claimed that the flyover has been able
to cut the travel time of the commuters by as much as 90 per cent. "With
the opening of this flyover, the traffic entering from the states such
as Punjab, Haryana, Jammu and Kashmir straight away reaches Dhaula Kuan.
This has drastically reduced the congestion at the Kashmere Gate bus
terminal and the New Delhi area. Commuters coming from Rajouri Garden,
Punjabi Bagh and other areas in west Delhi towards the ISBT, are also
able to avoid traffic snarls," an official with the North Delhi
Municipal Corporation said.
The biggest obstacle faced by the
North Delhi Municipal Corporation in completing the project was land
acquisition in the highly congested area. Several shops on the stretch
had to be relocated to make way for the construction work. Apart from
this, the removal of the two religious structures falling on the way was
also a big challenge for the authorities. Officials said that the
Supreme Court also barred the land acquisition for the project several
times. They point out that the biggest reason for the project escalation
cost was land acquisition. Initially, the land acquisition was worth
about Rs 70 crore but its figure reached nearly Rs 550 crore.
Officials
said that apart from land acquisition from private property owners, the
work involved several other complicated issues such as exchange of land
with Railways and "Delhi Urban Shelter Improvement Board" (DUSIB),
shifting of DDA market, shifting of schools and markets. Involvement of
multiple agencies including Railways, Jal Board, Traffic Police,
Municipal Corporation and other civic agencies also contributed in the
delays.
Apart from this, the project was conceived at the time
the national Capital had a unified MCD and during the tenure of the
erstwhile Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit. In 2012, the MCD was
trifurcated and the project was handed over to the North Delhi Municipal
Corporation.
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