Nagpur: The 7.2km-long Pardi flyover, being built by National Highways Authority of India (NHAI), is set to miss its March 2019 deadline. The Nagpur Municipal Corporation (NMC) is yet to acquire and handover four hectares of land to the NHAI and the delay will certainly escalate the project cost from the existing Rs665 crore.
The NHAI started construction of the flyover with five arms, two railway overbridges and one under bridge one-and-a-half years ago but it is nowhere near completion as the civic body failed to hand over the required land.
As the flyover meets the roads in the ramp section, width of the road will have to be increased to incorporate the ramp. Though in city side including ring roads, there is no need for acquisition of the land, but the NHAI needed roadside land on Pardi side.
As per memorandum of understandings with the NHAI, the NMC was supposed to acquire four hectares of land and in exchange the NHAI was to construct a shopping mall to rehabilitate roadside vendors. The NHAI had also earmarked Rs8 crore for the purpose.
A senior NMC official from the estate department confirmed that the civic body has been assigned to acquire four hectares from four different agencies including two government departments and two private land owners. “All the four lands are situated on Pardi side,” the official said.
“The NMC was supposed to acquire forest department’s 1.614 hectares zudpi-jungle land, 0.42 nazul land and two private lands admeasuring 1.96 hectares,” he said.
The process to acquire forest department land is almost complete. Here the delay was on account of the forest department seeking land for afforestation. Similarly, NHAI had given consent to provide 3.5 hectares in Mauja Kautha for afforestation, the official said.
Now, the process to acquire nazul land is almost complete and for other two private lands, the civic body is providing transfer of development rights (TDR) to the owners, the official said.
According to the NMC officer, the process to acquire and handing over all the four lands will be completed in four months.
The half-completed project is causing inconvenience to the citizens. Many road users said they were worried whether traffic snarls would worsen once the pace picked up. “The traffic is so bad that I wonder what will happen when the construction is in full flow,” said Ritesh Barai of Kapsi, who travels to Nagpur city daily. “There is no alternate stretch to reach the city from Pardi side,” he added.
Meanwhile, an NHAI official said the demand of east Nagpur MLA Krishna Khopde to extend the flyover by almost 850 metres is still pending with its headquarters in New Delhi. Khopde has demanded the flyover should be extended up to Muslim burial ground from its original plan of landing at Mini Mata Nagar.
