The National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) has dismissed as “ totally misleading” the allegation raised by environmentalists over constructing an “illegal” pseudo bridge over the Yamuna.
It has noted that the NHAI has taken up the construction of Delhi-Meerut Expressway for providing seamless connectivity between the Capital and suburbs of Ghaziabad, Meerut and the rest of U.P. and Uttarakhand.
“This road is being upgraded to 14 lanes (6 lane Expressway at the Centre and 4 lane National Highway on each side). As part of this project, existing bridge over Yamuna at Nizamuddin is also being expanded with parallel 4 lane bridge on each side for removing bottlenecks for movement of traffic between central Delhi and trans-Yamuna areas. It would also decongest Delhi in addition to free movement of traffic,” it explained.
To assess the impact of the proposed bridges, a hydraulic study has been carried out by IIT-Roorkee.
“From the studies it has been established that there is no impact on Yamuna floodplain area on account of the construction of the proposed bridges. In the proposed bridge, the location of piers has been kept at the same location as of the existing bridge. To further minimise the impact, the span for the proposed bridge has been kept double of the existing bridge. Even a number of culverts have also been proposed in the embankment of the approaches of existing bridge to provide connectivity between upstream and downstream of the floodplains of river Yamuna. In fact, there will be positive impact due to the construction of these bridges,” the Authority said.
It maintained that already clearance from the Inland Waterways Authority of India has been obtained. The proposal for clearance has also been submitted to Yamuna Standing committee and Principal Committee of NGT. An application before NGT is also being moved for its clearance.
The Authority was reacting to a letter wriiten by environmentalists to L-G Najeeb Jung and Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal seeking their intervention in protecting the Yamuna.
