Delayed by 3 years, NHAI sets Dec 31 deadline for widening NH-44 stretch

Panipat, December 1

The National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) has given an ultimatum to the contractor company to complete the widening of the 70-km stretch on the NH-44 from Mukarba Chowk in Delhi to Panipat till December 31.

90% work completed

About 90 per cent of work on widening the 70-km stretch of the NH-44 has been done. The remaining work will be completed by December 31. — Anand Dahiya, Deputy GM, NHAI

The work has been delayed by over three years. The commuters had to face traffic jams, especially in the evening hours on the NH-44 due to the construction of overbridges. The Union Government inaugurated the project (worth Rs 2,128.72 crore) of 12-lane widening of the NH-44 and the work was allotted to Essel Infra Projects Limited in 2015 during the first regime of the BJP-led government.

The company had, however, failed to complete the project. After a period of 1.5 years, the NHAI cancelled the tender of Essel Infra Projects and re-allotted the work to a new company, Well Spun, in 2019. The NHAI had fixed the target to complete the work by September 2021.

The stretch is scheduled to have 29 minor bridges, 10 flyovers, five vehicular underpasses, five passenger underpasses, 11 foot overbridges and 15 major road junctions.

However, the protesting farmers pitched tents and parked tractor-trailers on both sides of the NH-44 on November 26, 2020, due to which the work was hit on a 10-km stretch.

The road was opened for commuters after 385 days on December 15, 2021, after the farmers left the protest site on December 11, 2021. After that, the company has restarted the work. Anand Dahiya, Deputy General Manager (Technical), said 90 per cent of the work of widening the 70-km stretch on the NH-44 had been completed and the remaining would be completed by December 31.

One more flyover near National Fertilizers Limited (NFL) in Panipat has been opened for movement of small vehicles, while another one near the DSIIDC at Narela in Delhi would also be opened for vehicular movement at the end of November, he said. “After that, six more flyovers on the stretch will be left, but their work is at an advanced stage and we have fixed the target to complete all these six flyovers by December-end,” DGM Dahiya asserted.