Numerous setbacks, constant pressure of criticism and the fast approaching deadline of the Commonwealth Games has not dented the New Delhi Municipal Council's confidence in being able to meet its extended August-end deadline for completing major sections of the ambitious Rs.671-crore Connaught Place re-development project.
The project which originally envisaged façade restoration in all the 11 blocks in the Inner Circle, construction of eight new subways in the Outer Circle, construction of an underground services tunnel in the Middle Circle and an air-conditioning plant along with improvement in parking is stuttering towards completion with the civic body admitting that it would not be able to complete the project fully before the Games.
Though façade restoration, refurbishing of existing parking and subways would be completed, the underground services tunnel, the air-conditioning plant, the eight new subways, of which permission was granted for only four, would only be completed after the Games are over. While traders have been crying foul about their mounting losses owing to the half-completed construction work, the civic body has dubbed their attitude as un-cooperative and overtly critical.
But caught in the tussle between the NDMC and the New Delhi Traders' Association (NDTA), hapless old time customers and visitors to CP are ruing the loss of their once-loved Capital's landmark which has now been reduced to a mangle of dug up roads and wired mess.
An NDMC official said: “Despite the ongoing works, CP is packed with people all the time with no space to walk. So the argument of falling losses is exaggerated. The traders do not understand the technical nitty-gritties of the construction and its scale and find it easier to criticise but no one talks of how we are struggling day and night to complete a project of this scale meant to be completed in three years in 18 months.”
“Also the final round of approvals for starting digging work for the subways and tunnels came from the Delhi Traffic Police only by February this year. Moreover, it is hard for people to understand that we were working in such a congested and busy commercial district with heavy vehicular and pedestrian traffic,” he added.
While work is in full swing for refurbishment of five existing subways including ones at Super Baazar, Regal building, Baba Kharak Singh Marg and Janpath with installation of new flooring and lighting which is likely to be completed before the Games, the civic body stated that the four new subways being constructed at Barakhamba Road and Panchukuian Road would not make it by the Games deadline.
The NDMC official said: “For the new subways we were granted permission by the traffic police only in January end moreover we encountered a heavy network of underground service cables when we began digging which would take a long while to shift. Since there is no system available to do mapping of underground services we could not have anticipated this issue beforehand.”
As far as the façade restoration is concerned, the civic body is confident that given a dry spell of a few days it would be able to complete the painting work in most blocks. The nature of façade restoration work undertaken in these blocks includes replacement of existing windows and frames, plaster and painting, in addition to restoration of columns, walls and jaalis to their original shape.
The NDMC official said: “The mess of construction malba , wires and other debris that one sees in CP is temporary and would be cleared once the work is over. The flooring would, however, remain the same and is not be changed to granite as we wanted owing to Delhi Urban Arts Commission insistence on hand-chiselled sandstone which takes more time to be procured as it is not easily available.”
“The underground services tunnel being built in the Middle Circle to dovetail the water, electricity and sewerage line underground is progressing at a fast pace with the four diaphragm walls at A,B,E and F block complete and the remaining wall at C and D block likely to be constructed by August 15. Once the Games are over, we would be inter-joining the tunnel at the six radial roads in CP to make the tunnel operational,” he added.
The NDTA, however, is not buying these claims. NDTA president Atul Bharghav said: “The plan was no doubt very thoughtful but the time left is too less. So the quality of works completed in such a short time would be questionable. The NDMC has already missed its June 30 deadline because of which the traders are suffering huge losses in business,” he added.
