Good news for Delhi commuters as the required final revised estimate for the completion of India's first and much awaited asymmetric cable- stayed “Signature Bridge” connecting Outer Ring Road with Wazirabad has been approved by Delhi cabinet on Thursday. Commuters will be be able to access this road by October end.
“The Delhi Cabinet cleared the proposal for the final payment for Signature Bridge. Ninety-six per cent of the work is already complete. Now there should be no hurdles in opening the bridge by October 31,” Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia tweeted.
Delhi Cabinet chaired by the Chief Minister, approved PWD's final revised estimate of Rs 1518.37 crore as recommended by Expenditure Financial Committee (EFC)
Incidentally, Public Works Department (PWD) had also proposed that the project be completed as per approved scope of work within scheduled period at the sanctioned cost and no cost escalation will be considered in future.
This may be noted that due to difference of opinion between PWD and Delhi Tourism & Transporation Development Corporation (DTTDC) engineers on quantity and justification for escalated cost, it was proposed to get a third party evaluation done.
On March 7, Deputy Chief Minister and Finance Minister, Manish Sisodia had decided that opinion of Central Public Works Department (CPWD) be obtained and finalised as soon as possible.
CPWD gave its opinion on four major contentious issues including Escalation of the total cost, lifts, Pylon Access System and lease Charges.
Importantly, the bridge project was approved in 1997 after an accident on the narrow Wazirabad bridge wherein a school bus fell into the Yamuna, killing 22 children.
However, the completion of the bridge has been delayed by several years mainly due to inadequate funds.
Even the project cost has increased from Rs 1,100 crore to Rs 1,575 crore, becoming a major cause of concern for the Public Works Department. The PWD has released Rs 1,244 crore so far.
It may be recalled that the project was conceptualized in 2004 and get nod from Delhi Cabinet in 2007.
Surprisingly, the first deadline was fixed ahead of the 2010 Commonwealth Games (CWG) , however, later it was revised to 2013.
More interestingly, the project missed the deadline and pushed again with new deadline set to June 2016 and then July 2017 and then get further delayed and pushed to December 2017.
In October 2003, Delhi government had decided to outsource this project for which Delhi Tourism & Transportation Development Corporation limited (DTTDC), (A Government Undertaking) submitted their offer on November 5.2003 to undertake the bridge at Wazirabad as a deposit work with departmental charges at 5percent of the estimated cost.
According to Delhi government spokesperson the offer was considered favourably and Project was entrusted to DTTDC as a Deposit Work.
“A Memorandum to Undertaking in this regard was signed between the Delhi government represented by the Secretary, PWD and DTTDC represented by the Chief Engineer on August 27, 2004,” stated as mentioned in Delhi government release.