The plight of people living near under construction Balliwala flyover project is set to prolong as the project is getting entwined in legal issues.The Nainital High Court (HC) has asked the State Public Works Department (PWD) to clarify as to how an originally four lane flyover is being converted to two lane one.local resident and petitioner Ajay Goel told The Pioneer that the construction of flyover was defying all the norms.
“The whole project reeks of corruption right from signing of MOU to its execution; the HC has now seek details of the project from Engineer in Chief (EC) of PWD,” he said. Goel claimed the project was originally a four lane one and the Engineering Project India limited (EPIl) - the company entrusted with the task of constructing flyover- changed it to two lanes against all norms. The HC has set July 8 as the next date of hearing.
Interestingly the counsel of the company claimed before the HC that the construction work on project was complete while on ground only some pillars were visible.The EC of PWD, HK Upreti said he was yet to receive the court order. He said PWD was not constructing the flyover but was only funding the project through one of its divisions.Upreti was of the view that if the project was now changed to four lane one than big amount of land need to be acquired.The work on 795 meters Balliwala flyover was started on September 1, 2013 and the Rs2278.36 lakh project was expected to be completed by October 2014.
Meanwhile local people continue to bear the burden of inordinate delay in the construction of flyover which was supposed to reduce the commuting time of city dwellers. It is worth mentioning here that the work on the project started without the necessary land acquisition process.Many locals and shopkeepers are now totally opposed to the project while some demand that they should be given compensation as per the prevailing market rate. A local resident and BJP Kisan Morcha leader Jogendra Singh Pundeer told The Pioneer that people are forced to bear traffic congestion and pollution due to delay in construction.
He said that more than 70 bighas of agricultural land in the vicinity is not getting water for irrigation as the construction company has dug the small channel supplying water for the fields. Pundeer said that 15 families of agriculturists are affected as they are not able to produce anything on their land.