No funds, work on approach road to Faridabad-Noida bridge comes to halt

Tribune News Service

Faridabad, April 14

With over three months gone after the completion of the 630-metre-long bridge over Yamuna to connect Faridabad with Greater Noida in UP, the construction of the 18-km-long approach road for providing connectivity to the bridge remained halted due to fund crunch for the past about a month. The deadline of the completion of the connectivity project costing Rs 97 crore is September this year, according to sources in the district administration.

While the work on the construction of the approach road was started soon after the completion of the bridge in December 2022, the work got halted due to delay in release of funds and payment to the agency hired for the connectivity from Faridabad side, according to officials, who claim that the work is likely to resume after the clearance of the pending bills. The approach road which will connect the Kheri pul in the city with the bridge at Manjhawali village is the part of the Rs 315 crore project. Though its foundation was laid in August 2014, the work on the ground took off in 2018, with the deadline of December 2019. The project has missed as many as six deadlines, before the bridge was made ready in December 2022. Though the bridge has come up after about eight long years of time, the pending work of roads on both sides makes it of no use, says an official on condition of anonymity, who adds the given pace the bridge is not likely to be functional this year also as the connectivity work on both sides (Faridabad and Noida) has either been pending or had been very slow.

Though land acquisition on Faridabad side has already been done and work on the road has been on, similar work on Greater Noida side is yet to be taken up, which threatens to delay the project further, it is claimed. “The bridge is of no use till it enable the vehicle movement across it,’’ says Dheeraj Yadav, a resident. The first direct connectivity between Faridabad and Greater Noida, the bridge will reduce the commuting time between two cities to 20 to 25 minutes from 1.5 hours at present.

Pradeep Sindhu, Executive Engineer, PWD, said while phase-one was over, the work on the approach road would be completed soon.

Residents feel the heat

• Though the 630m-long bridge is ready for over 3 months, the authorities concerned are yet to complete the work of constructing approach roads to make it functional.
• The project cannot be declared as completed until the bridge is fully functional. Dheeraj Yadav, a resident, said the bridge is of no use till it enables the movement of vehicles.

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