The Uttarakhand High Court (HC) in a landmark judgment has directed the State Government to complete within one year all such under-construction bridges and flyover where are behind schedule. The court has also asked the secretary Public Works Department (PWD) and Managing Director (MD) of Engineering India Private limited (EPIl) to ensure that the all pending works in the ISBT and Ballupur flyovers are completed within next six months, said the petitioner and BJP leader Ravindra Jugran while addressing newsmen here on Monday.
On the petition filed by Jugran the HC on November 07 had passed these judgments. Jugran claimed that the flyovers which are being constructed on National Highway — 72 are being constructed in open defiance of the NH Act of 1956. He said that the Government had proposed to start construction of Ballupur, Balliwala, ISBT and Jogiwala flyovers and underpass at Bhandaribagh in the year 2013 and allotted budget for them but the construction on Jogiwala and Bhandaribagh is yet to start. Expressing gratitude for its judgment, the BJP leader said that it would ensure action on corruption and expedite construction activity with proper quality checks in the state. He said that though the department is claiming that the work on Balliwala flyover is compete but the fact remains that many works like service lane, drainage, pedestrian pathway and electricity are unfinished yet and the court has set up a time limit of three months. “The HC has ordered an inquiry in the delay in the construction of ISBT and Ballupur flyovers and said that responsibility of the delay should be fixed which caused problems to the people and incurred revenue loss. The court has termed the NHs as lifelines and emphasised that they should be free of all encroachment,’’ he said.
The BJP leader said that another important aspect of the order is that the court has directed the secretary National Highways to appoint presiding officerwithin two months on the vacant post in the tribunal located at Chandigarh. The court has also said that instead of Executive Engineer PWD, the Chief Engineer PWD should be the administrator of the highways under the NH (land and tariff) act, 2002. Jugran said that the court has threatened to suspend the MD of EPIl, if any laxity in implementation of its orders is observed.
He said that a PIl was filed by him against gross anomalies in construction flyovers in Dehradun in the year 2015 and had the court taken cognisance of his petition at that time the orders for construction of these structures as per the norms of NH act of 1956 could have been passed.