The much delayed project of North Delhi Municipal Corporation (NMC) Rani Jhansi Grade separator is all set to miss its eighth deadline as the work of laying road is still not completed near Azad market towards Filmistaan due to a camp set up by Kanwarias under the flyover, a senior corporation official said.
A senior NMC official said that the project is expected to be ready in the next 15 days. “The work was temporarily stopped considering safety of the Kanwarias,” he said.
lieutenant Governor Anil Baijal had directed various departments of the civic agency to complete the work ahead of August 15 during inspection on June 12 this year. However, it again missed the deadline.
The 1.6-km-long flyover from near St Stephen's Hospital to Filmistaan Cinema once completed would be opened for vehicular movement towards ISBT, Kashmiri Gate, and Mori Gate etc to the citizens particularly of Shakti Nagar, Karol Bagh, Gulabi Bagh, Kamla Nagar, Sadar Bazar, Paharganj, Azad Market and surrounding areas.
The project has set an extraordinary example of years of delay due to the multiple agencies responsible for removing roadblocks. The continuous deadline breach has escalated the project cost by Rs 547 crore more than the originally sanctioned one. The cost originally was decided Rs 177 crore that further increase to Rs 724 crore.
The project was conceived in 1998 but was commissioned by the erstwhile municipal Corporation in 2006. The construction work started in 2007 and has been in the pipeline since then. The agencies, responsible for removing bottlenecks, have indulged in passing the buck for years and the story still continues, leading to the delay in project for eight years.