By Jaideep Sarin, IANS,
Chandigarh : A major expressway in Haryana that will ease the inflow of traffic passing through Delhi has been given a new set of completion deadlines with the already delayed project missing yet another date.
No amount of pulling up and warnings to the construction company, D.S. Constructions, at the level of Haryana Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda and chief secretary Urvashi Gulati has helped speed up the 135-km long Kundli-Manesar-Palwal (KMP) Expressway.
Originally slated to be completed in November 2009, the nearly Rs.19 billion (Rs.1,900 crore) KMP expressway has missed another deadline of completion by the end of 2010 despite the construction company and the state government saying work on the expressway was proceeding on a “war footing”.
After Hooda did an aerial survey of the expressway Tuesday at Manesar near Gurgaon and Rai near Sonipat, two new completion deadlines have been given to the concessionaire.
“The 53-km Manesar-Palwal stretch is now slated for March 2011 completion while the remaining Kundli-Manesar portion will be complete in August next year,” Hooda said after his inspection of the KMP sites.
Hooda had during an earlier inspection of the KMP expressway project reprimanded the concessionaire officers, saying: “Don’t make excuses, complete the work. It is already late. The expressway was to be completed by Nov 1, 2009.”
He had earlier wanted the expressway to be completed Nov 1 this year to coincide with the Haryana Day (to mark the creation of the state). This deadline too was not met.
The significance of the expressway is that it will not only connect four major national highways (NHs), NH-1 (Delhi-Ambala-Amritsar), NH-2 (Delhi-Agra-Varanasi-Dankuni), NH-8 (Delhi-Jaipur-Ahmedabad-Mumbai) and NH-10 (Delhi-Hisar-Fazilka-India-Pakistan border), but will also significantly reduce the traffic from north Indian states to central, western and southern India and vice versa, which passes through New Delhi, to bypass the national capital.
“This will not only reduce the traffic coming into New Delhi from all sides but will result in time-and-fuel saving for the vehicles also since they can easily bypass Delhi,” Panipat-based trader Vijay Sharma told IANS.
Officials of the concessionaire, while admitting that the project completion had been delayed, said that big loops would be constructed on the expressway where it cuts NH-1, NH-8 and NH-10. These loops will help to connect the expressway to state highways.
“The traffic on state highways would continue to move without any interruption. In the area between Manesar and Palwal, 15 flyovers and 75 small bridges would be constructed. Similarly, between Kundli and Manesar, 30 flyovers and about 100 small constructions would be carried out. These include four Railway Over Bridges (ROBs),” an official of D.S. Constructions said.
Initially, the expressway would be a four-lane road, but there would be provision to wide it for a six-lane road. Once the expressway is completed, trucks and other vehicles not headed for New Delhi can straightaway reach Manesar for going to the Rajasthan, Gujarat and Maharashtra side and to Palwal to go towards Agra in Uttar Pradesh and other states.
Work on the expressway had started in 2006 and was to be completed by November 2009. Being made on the BOT (build, operate and transfer) mode, the concessionaire will be allowed to collect toll tax from vehicles using the expressway for 23 years and nine months, including the construction time.
Hooda wants a number of facilities, including 10 theme cities like fashion city, film city, entertainment city, sports city and an eco-city, along the expressway. The state government had engaged a consultant, Scott Wilson, to develop the area along the project.
The consultant has prepared the project report and, keeping in view the development potential of the area, proposed different specialised townships like education city, cyber-city, medi-city, bio-science city, world trade city, fashion city and retail merchandiser warehouse centre, entertainment city, leather city, leisure city and dry-port city.
(Jaideep Sarin can be contacted at [email protected])