Flyovers are supposed to bring relief to the common people but long delay in the construction of the flyovers at Balliwala and Ballupur has made life difficult for the people of the city, particularly those living in the vicinity.
The work on these flyovers was supposed to be completed by October this year but the snail’s pace with which they are being constructed makes it sure that at least two more years are needed to compete them.
Chief Minister Harish Rawat recently had made a surprise inspection of these flyovers and was reportedly very upset over the delay in the construction of these flyovers. The district administration too swung into action after the rebuke by the CM, the District Magistrate Chandresh Kumar has ordered to expedite the work of the flyover.
During the meeting, EPIl DGM Alok Kumar disclosed that in view of the local people creating nuisance, they had to remove the giant machine from the spot. DM Kumar said he was unaware of such things happening. He shot back why they had not informed him or the district administration of the matter. later, the DM instructed them to deploy heavy machine on the spot immediately. In case things happen again they must inform him. He also assured that district administration will provide fool-proof security to them and to their equipment as well.
The residents and shopkeepers near the Balliwala chowk are up in arms against the delay and are in fact questioning the propriety of constructing the flyover. The spokesperson of the GMS road Vyapar mandal Ajay Goel said the company entrusted the task of constructing the flyover Engineering Project India limited (EPIl), is not following the norms and no land acquisition is done till date. The norms mandate that the process of land acquisition should be done before the start of the project. He said that in reply to a Right to Information (RTI) application filed by him the Public Works Department (PWD) has accepted that no feasibility test was done for checking the traffic flow for these flyovers similarly no proposal for clearance of these flyovers are sent to the central government. Goel said that the residents of the area and the Vyapar mandal would soon challenge the company in the court. Goel said that compensation on the land acquisition should be strictly done as per the guidelines of National Highway compensation policy.
Kanwali road resident Yogendra Singh Pundeer said that the entire project of flyover smacks of corruption. He said that the EPIl is misguiding the administration that it removed the machines from the construction site after the protest of locals. A shopkeeper on GMS road Manoj Thakur said that all the shopkeepers are reporting a steep decline in the business due to the construction of these flyovers. He said that the students of En Mary School located on the GMS road and other schools face threat from speeding vehicles as majority of space on the road is occupied by the construction material. Another shopkeeper Md Arif said that there was no need to build a flyover in Balliwala as traffic load is not very high and the road is wide enough.
Yogesh Gupta who owns a footwear shop on the busy Ballupur chowk said that costumers have almost stopped visiting his shop due to the construction of the flyover.