Doon residents continue to face traffic woes as the flyovers which were supposed to ease the pressure on the city roads are still a distant dream. The State Government started a project to build flyovers at Ballupur, Balliwala and Jogiwala and near the Inter-State Bus Terminal (ISBT) and a railway under-bridge (RUB) at Bhandaribagh. The project had attracted controversy over selection of executing agency when Engineering Project India ltd (EPIl) was handed over the task of constructing these flyovers.
The work order for constructing flyovers at Ballupur, Balliwala and Jogiwala were given to the EPIl while the Public Works Department (PWD) was asked to construct the flyover near the ISBT. The EPIl was also given the task of constructing the RUB at Bhandribag. The EPIl was given an amount of `180 crores for three flyovers and the RUB and the PWD was provided a budget of `57 crores for the ISBT flyover. The Central Government provided the funds for these projects under it Special Planed Assistance (SPA) scheme. These projects started amid much fanfare in March 2013.
It is interesting to note that the EPIl started the work without taking the necessary clearance from the Road Transport and Highways Ministry. These clearances were taken this year, in the clearance the ministry asked the EPIl to redesign the Jogiwala flyover. In the meantime the EPIl conducted pile tests for the flyovers at different sites, these sites are now the points of traffic congestion and causing problems to the people. When this correspondent tried to contact the project in-charge of EPIl he said that he is being told not to talk to the media. The work at the Jogiwala is stalled due to the problems of land acquisitions and the process of the redesigning and the work in RUB at Bhandaribagh is stalled due to the objections raised by the railways.
The Chief Engineer Highways PWD, H K Upreti told The Pioneer, “The work on the flyover project at ISBT is in progress and the project is expected to be completed by June 2015.”
A typical flyover project is usually divided in two phases; in the first phase the process of designing, land acquisitions and soil testing are done while in phase II the actual construction of the flyover takes place. The population of Dehradun is rapidly increasing and the stress on its road network is very high, it remains to be seen that how much time these flyover take to complete so that the pressure on the city’s over crowded roads is eased.