Nine months gone, work on Rs 200 crore elevated flyover project of Palwal remains suspended

Bijendra Ahlawat
Tribune News Service
Palwal, July 24

The work on the Rs 200 crore elevated flyover project on the National Highway passing through the city has failed to move even an inch in the past nine months.

Though a notice had been served by the NHAI to the company in March this year, work has failed to resume thus prolonging the sufferings of the commuters on the highway here.

“Only 40 per cent of the work has been executed on the 2.5 kilometre long flyover aimed to provide signal free travel to the commuters moving on the highway connecting the national capital with Mathura and Agra,” said a district official, who said work was started in August 2017.

Claiming that the project is not likely to be completed in the next 18 months, if resumed immediately, he blamed the laxity on the part of the supervising authorities for the unusual delay.

“It has become a source of constant traffic chaos and pollution for the past three years,” said Kulveer Chauhan, a local resident.

“The work on this flyover got stranded in October 2019, when the agency (contractor) handling this project left the work midway due to a ‘tussle’ over payments between it the main concessionaire (company) who had been given the work of six laning the National Highway till Agra in UP several years ago,” claim the sources in the district administration.

Though it is revealed that the suspension of the work made the NHAI to make a move to replace the Concessionaire in March this year, the officials concerned claim that an action in this regard was still awaited.

Dheeraj Singh, Project Manager, NHAI said that the issue of replacement of the Concessionaire was still in the purview of the higher authorities and it is likely to get resolved soon.

Admitting that 60 per cent of the work on the project was still lying incomplete, Singh said the efforts were on resume it immediately and make it operational by July next year.

“The matter is being taken up with the NHAI as the delay has resulted in acute chaos and problems in the traffic movement here,” said DC Naresh Narwal.