Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit on Friday urged the Railways to expeditiously provide push box-enabled rail under-bridge entry below Shahdara-Delhi junction railway line near the Yamuna to facilitate timely commissioning of the 5.5 km Ring Road bypass ahead of the Commonwealth Games in the city.
Ms. Dikshit, who inspected construction work on the Ring Road bypass along with Public Works Department(PWD) Minister Raj Kumar Chauhan and senior officials, said work being executed by the PWD would be completed before June 2009 and so it was essential to have the rail under-bridge ready before that so that the bypass could become functional.
The Railways have to construct the link below the railway line by pushing three boxes. Railways officials present at the site that their work would be completed by May 2010. The work on this project was started in January 2009. The Ring Road bypass is being constructed at a cost of Rs.654 crore.
Out of the 5.5 km bypass road, 3.7 km would be on the surface level while the rest would be elevated. The project seeks to decongest Ring Road from Rajghat to Hanuman Setu as there is heavy congestion on this section and the situation becomes worse during movement of VVIPs to the samadhis on this stretch.
The Ring Road bypass will go under the new Geeta Colony bridge on the Yamuna and would also have a service road on the river side. Delhi Development Authority would be developing the area between the bypass and the Yamuna as a Golden Jubilee Park on the lines of India Gate lawns.
During the visit, it was informed that the work on the project was progressing well and the pillars on both sides of the Ring Road bypass have been installed. Besides, the spadework for construction of the surface level road behind the samadhis has also been done.
The Chief Minister also inspected Chhatrasal stadium where redevelopment work is in full swing. The stadium is being developed as the athletics training venue for Commonwealth Games. The redevelopment work, that would cost Rs 99 crores, will be completed by December 2009.
The newly developed stadium will have a 400-metre-long eight-lane synthetic track, grass field for football, synthetic turf for various sports, 8,000 sitting capacity for spectators, 500 VIPs sitting capacity, air-conditioned athletic block, basement parking, roof over spectators’ gallery, LED display board, flood lighting for play area, and fire fighting and fire alarm systems.
