The government announced the construction of a 25-km four-lane road along the Najafgarh drain from Dhansa Regulator to Dwarka Mor to decongest parts of outer Delhi.

Presenting the Delhi government’s annual budget, finance minister Manish Sisodia said that the road would be built at a cost of Rs 500 crore and work on the project would begin in the 2019-20 financial year.

“Bridges on NH-10 at Rampura, Tri Nagar, Inderlok and Karampura will be widened at a cost of Rs 86 crore during 2019-20. I propose an outlay of Rs 1,900 crore in the budget for 2019-20 for implementation of various projects, which is 73% higher than the revised estimates of roads and bridges projects in 2018-19,” Sisodia said.

The Public Works Department (PWD) officials said that last year, the revised estimate for ‘road and bridges’ segment was Rs 1,098 crore.

Sisodia also allocated a separate fund of Rs 800 crore under the “Mukhyamantri Sadak Yojana” for the development of roads that lie neglected as no agency took ownership for their maintenance.

Sisodia, who is also Delhi’s deputy chief minister, announced Rs 308 crore for redesigning and street-scaping of six stretches of roads maintained by the PWD.

“Instead of making a number of new announcements, this year, we are focusing more on completing the pending projects. Our priority is that the projects are finished in the given time,” Sisodia said later.

In his budget speech, he also counted several ongoing projects such as construction of flyovers at the Shastri Park intersection and Seelampur. He said that construction of these flyovers had begun and was likely to get over in 18 months. These flyovers will be built at a cost of Rs 303 crore.

He said an underpass at Ashram would come up at a cost of Rs 78 crore to decongest the busy intersection. The government also allocated Rs 29.40 crore for the construction of six foot over bridges at Metcalf House, Yusuf Sarai, Africa Avenue, Aali Mod, Mathura Road, Harkesh Nagar, Mathura Road and Oberoi Hotel.

Last year, the AAP government had announced a 13-km corridor elevated road parallel to the Yamuna between Signature Bridge and Kalindi Kunj bypass and another over Najafgarh drain from Kakrola More in west Delhi to Wazirabad in north Delhi to decongest Ring Road and parts of north and west Delhi, respectively.

Sisodia did not mention the status of these projects, which PWD officials say are still in the planning stages.

Also there was no mention of the east-west corridor (Anand Vihar to Peeragarhi) and the north-south corridor (Wazirabad to Tilak Nagar), which were announced in the 2016-17 budget.

First Published: Feb 27, 2019 02:25 IST