NHAI sets two-month deadline to shift IFFCO Chowk fuel station

GURUGRAM: Miffed over the delay in completion of the underpass at Iffco Chowk, the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) has given a two-month ultimatum to Haryana government to clear the land of a petrol pump or it would pull out of the project.
This is the third time that the NHAI has issued a stern warning to the state government regarding the completion of the project.

The Rs 285cr IFFCO Chowk underpass project was announced in September 2016 and was scheduled to be completed within 15 months. The project cost was to be borne by the state government (25%) and NHAI (75%).

However, officials said that around 97% of the work has been completed except the portion (55 metres) being held up by the fuel station on MG Road.

“NHAI will wait till January, if a solution comes out, we will complete the project. If nothing happens, then we will handover this site to the state government for MCG or GMDA to complete the underpass project,” a senior highways authority official told TOI on Saturday.

Saurabh Singhal, team leader-cum-traffic transportation expert at Bloom Companies, NHAI’s consultant for the underpass project, added, “I also feel the government is not serious in resolving this issue. It’s very sad that local officials are not able to relocate one petrol pump that is obstructing the completion of an underpass that will reduce congestion in the area to a great extent.”

Though Huda had offered the petrol pump owner an alternative site on Golf Course Road, the sessions court ordered a stay on the same in April this year as it would require the deemed land use of the plot to be changed, from taxi stand to fuel station. This was after owners of Ameya One shopping mall on Golf Course Road moved the court, questioning the validity of allotting the site to a petrol pump.

IFFCO Chowk petrol pump owner Sukhjit Mann also put the onus on the state government.

“The authorities in Gurugram are completely not interested in solving this issue,” he said. The next date of hearing in the case is December 6.

Gurugram MP Rao Inderjit Singh also blamed the state’s administration for the mess. “Around nine months back, I held a meeting with senior Haryana officials where they told me that the solution to this issue would be done in a month or two. But nothing has been done till date,” the Union minister said.