Deadline crossed but work still on

Saturday, March 12, 2011

The clock stopped ticking last October but many flagship projects of NDMC undertaken for the Commonwealth Games are still awaiting completion. The civic body has now assured that the work on Shivaji Stadium, which was supposed to be a venue for hockey, will be completed by June this year. And the new deadline for the completion of long-awaited multi-level parking lots at Sarojini Nagar and Baba Kharak Singh Marg is end-June.

Though the CP Redevelopment project was conceptualized in time for the Games, NDMC chairperson Parimal Rai on Friday insisted that it was never a Games-related project. Now the construction of the ambitious service corridor in CP is likely to be over by March next year while four new subways may be ready in the forthcoming financial year.

"We have failed in the Shivaji Stadium project due to various reasons. There was a stay by the high court on removal of a shop due to which we could not build the water tank. Now the play area is ready and only the work on the underground parking is left to be completed," said Parimal Rai after releasing the annual budget of NDMC on Friday.

The deadline for the stadium had been getting extended every few months. Once the Games got over, the civic body targeted March as the possible deadline for the project. The Central Vigilance Commission had also found some discrepancies in the cost of the project. Now once it is ready, NDMC will allow parking by office-goers and people visiting CP in the stadium parking lot.

The plan for building multilevel parking lots at Sarojini Nagar, BKS Marg and Kasturba Gandhi Marg, which are essential to ease the worsening parking woes in these areas, was floated in 2007. The estimated duration of the project was 30 months. But there is no progress in regard to the parking lot at KG Marg and it will be at least three months before the other two get functional.

Rai also insisted that CP had been given a facelift for Games though otherwise it was "never a Games project". He said the facade restoration was done before the Games and service corridor upgrade was now being taken up. He said, "It was a three-year-long project but JNNURM approved it only in 2008. The project should be completed by April 2012."

With CBI raiding the premises of NDMC officials on Thursday in connection with alleged irregularities in renovation of Shivaji Stadium and Talkatora Stadium, the civic body officials said it has already initiated penal proceedings against some of its employees. "The CBI has not given any formal intimation to us. It appears that the issues were the same on which we had started major penalty proceedings," Rai said.

Original news source http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2011-03-12/delhi/28683482_1_service-corridor-ndmc-parimal-rai