The proposal for constructing a rail overbridge at Pachalam received a shot in the arm on Saturday with Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) agreeing in principle to come on board for the execution of the project and to complete it within six months if entrusted with the task.
After consultations with the people’s representatives and the Union Minister of State for Food and Consumer Affairs K.V. Thomas here on Saturday, E. Sreedharan, Principal Advisor to DMRC, offered to come up with a detailed project report at the earliest. The project is also likely to involve much less acquisition of land than originally conceived.
DMRC is hopeful of limiting the width of the ROB to 10 meters, in which case land acquisition can be restricted to one acre instead of nine acres as in the original proposal. A rough estimate puts the cost of completing the project to about Rs. 30 crore. The idea is to have a ROB with two-lane carriageway with one-and-a-half metre-wide footpath. This is likely to restrict the overall width to 10 metres. The demand for land would be mainly for the four-metre-wide side roads.
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The proposal should come as a big relief to everyone associated with the project, as it had hit a wall following lack of consensus over land acquisition. Mr. Thomas said that the DMRC proposal would be discussed at a meeting to be attended by the Chief Minister in the city on January 4.
Mr. Sreedharan favoured closing down the road for the execution of the project by making available alternative traffic arrangements. Mayor Tony Chammany said that the work didn’t take off owing to the lack of funds for the acquisition of nine acres needed for the project. The corporation had planned to execute the project under \the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission scheme, which does not have provision for allocating funds for land acquisition. He hoped the project to sail through smoothly with land acquisition being brought to the minimum.