IIT Flyover finally slated for opening in the first week of August

Monday , Jul 27, 2009
Source: http://www.indianexpress.com

With three flyovers under construction on the Outer Ring Road between IIT and NH-8 since May 2007, commuters on this stretch are a harassed lot.

A delay of nearly six months later, one of the three is finally slated for opening in the first week of August.

Work on the 800-metre flyover connecting Aruna Asaf Ali Marg and Africa Avenue (also christened as IIT flyover) is 97 per cent complete. The flyover, being built at a cost of Rs 82.60 crore, was to be completed by February this year.

At present, engineers are working is on streetlighting and signages. "We will be able to complete the work by the end of this month, and the flyover will be opened for traffic by the first week of August," said A K Sinha, Chief Engineer, Public Works Department (PWD). The flyover was delayed due to the necessity of shifting underground electricity lines, Delhi Jal Board pipelines as well as pipelines of Indraprastha Gas Limited.

The rest of the ride will, however, continue to be bumpy. As soon as you travel past the IIT flyover, you will hit the messy Munirka flyover construction site, which is coming up over the Vivekanand, Nelson Mandela and Poorvi Marg intersection. Constructed at a cost of Rs 104.30 crore, the flyover is only 77 per cent ready, after being hit by a series of misfortunes.

Work was delayed by two months after it was found that the steel girders manufactured by Larsen and Tourbo in their Chennai workshop were not designed properly and did not fit. The girders were then shipped off to L&T's workshop in Faridabad where they were modified.

The penalty for delay is 1.5 per cent of the project's total cost for each month of delay. The contractor, AFCON Infrastructure Limited, was, however, not penalised as all three flyovers are part of a single project.

Other causes of delays have mostly been unavoidable civic problems. The sewer in the area has been overflowing for almost six months. Traffic department and PWD officials claim they have written to the DJB on several occasions, but nothing has come of it.

"It seems the residents of Munirka village have connected their home sewers with the drain. We have a lot of difficulty working in such a condition," said a senior PWD engineer.

That apart, work got delayed over the shifting of BSES's 66 KV overhead line and the IGL line at Sector 4. The flyover is now expected to be completed only by the end of September, almost seven months after the stipulated date of completion. 

The third flyover on the stretch, which covers Benito Juarez Marg and Rao Tula Ram Marg, is under review by the Unified Traffic & Transport Infrastructure (Planning and Engineering Centre). The government has spent Rs 59.64 crore on the project, 86 per cent of which is ready.

Construction work was stalled after Lieutenant-Governor Tejendra Khanna wanted the flyover to be extended, a decision which would affect the Malai Mandir structure. Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit, insists on sticking to the original plan.