Iffco Chowk fuel station now offered site on Golf Course Road

GURUGRAM: For the third time, NHAI has identified a fresh site to relocate the petrol pump on MG Road, which is holding up construction of an underpass at Iffco Chowk on the Delhi-Gurugram expressway.
The latest option is at Sector 52A-53 along Golf Course Road, confirmed estate officer 2 Vivek Kalia. This, after the owner of the petrol pump was first offered a site near Ambience mall that Huda failed to acquire, and then offered a second site in Sector 42, on which the Punjab and Haryana high court gave a stay as it had been reserved for a taxi stand.

NHAI, meanwhile, is laying the blame for the past year-and-half’s delay squarely on Huda’s failure to relocate the pump by allotting it an alternative plot. With NHAI claiming it has completed 92% of the work on the underpass at Iffco Chowk, the only remaining portion is held up due to delay in shifting the pump.

In fact, NHAI recently gave the Haryana government a stern warning to relocate the petrol pump and free up the land within 3-4 weeks, failing which they would have to pull out of the project. NHAI chairman Deepak Kumar, in a letter dated March 7, informed the Haryana government chief secretary Deepinder Singh Dhesi that the delay had held up the project for long. “Under conditions of the contract, any further delay would result in financial implications for NHAI. In these circumstances, NHAI may be forced to close work at this stage, in case the site is not clear within 3-4 weeks,” the letter states. Only 8% work remains, which is delayed by the petrol pump relocation, the letter adds.

Union road transport minister Nitin Gadkari had also raised the issue with chief minister Manohar Lal Khattar, but even that has failed to get the land cleared.