Other States - New Delhi   

NDMC holds up new Metro line

By Gaurav Vivek Bhatnagar

NEW DELHI APRIL 23. Millions of Delhiites may be eagerly awaiting the arrival of the Metro near their colonies or workplace, but the New Delhi Municipal Council (NDMC) seems in no hurry to make this much cherished dream a reality. On the contrary, it has delayed the start of work on Barakhamba Road by nearly a month by holding up handover of the land citing some "parking problems''.

Though last month itself the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation had stated that construction work on Barakhamba Road would begin on April 1, when the contractor start cordoning off the service lanes, a visit to the area reveals today that the service lanes are still in possession of the parking contractors.

As per DMRC sources, the parking contracts -- which were to come to an end on March 31 -- have been renewed on an interim basis by NDMC. Consequently, the work on the project has got delayed by about a month.

Although DMRC officials are confident that they would be able to make up for lost time provided the service lanes on both sides of Barakhamba Road are handed over to them in the next couple of days, as has been promised by NDMC, the fact remains that in a project of this scale an actual delay of a month can result in losses running into crores of rupees.

As per the plan drawn up by DMRC, from April 1 the contractors were to have started preliminary works like soil testing and shifting of utilities. All these activities were to have started in the service lanes leaving the centre of the road open to traffic.

Also, the construction, as per DMRC, would not have caused any parking problem as only about 400 cars and equal number of two-wheelers were parked in the service lanes whereas Connaught Place had a capacity to accommodate over 8,000 cars alone. With the Palika Parking -- having space for nearly 3,000 cars -- remaining largely underutilised, the DMRC believed that the vehicles could be accommodated there.

But NDMC thought differently. First it delayed handing over of the land on the ground that the term of the parking contracts would expire only on March 31. Thereafter, it delayed the handover on the pretext of searching for an alternative parking site when actually there was no need.

While planning creation of alternative parking sites at Bhairon Marg and India Gate with park-and-ride facility provided by an automobile manufacturer, NDMC also drew up plans for providing an alternate parking on Hailey Road, which runs parallel to Tolstoy Marg at a distance of around 250 metres from it.

But these plans have put a question mark on timely completion of the long Barakhamba Road-Dwarka corridor which is scheduled for completion in a tight time-frame of just 22 months.

Printer friendly page  
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Other States

News: Front Page | National | Southern States | Other States | International | Opinion | Business | Sport | Miscellaneous |
Advts: Classifieds | Employment | Obituary |

Stories in this Section

• Injured bridegroom dies
• Court notice to school
• Pharmacists to launch postal campaign
• NDMC holds up new Metro line
• Bangladeshi dacoits raid house, six arrested
• Suspended cop threatens woman

Copyright © 2003, The Hindu. Republication or redissemination of the contents of this screen are expressly prohibited without the written consent of The Hindu