All city NHAI projects behind schedule

Nagpur: Even though union transport minister Nitin Gadkari belongs to the city, all the projects of National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) in the city and surrounding areas are behind schedule. There are five projects of the agency of which only three will be completed this year. In some cases government agencies caused delays by refusing to hand over land.
NHAI regional officer (RO) M Chandrashekhar said that the Automotive Square to Kanhan four-lane road would be complete within two months barring two patches. “The road passes through Kamptee cantonment. There is dispute over ownership of the road land between Indian Army and NHAI. Even though Nirmala Sitharaman, former defence minister, had asked Kamptee cantonment officers in December 2018 to allow us to widen the road, the officials sent armed personnel whenever our contractor started work there. Now citizens of Kamptee have filed a public interest litigation (PIL) in Nagpur bench of Bombay High Court urging it to direct the Army to let NHAI complete its job,” he added.
Chandrashekhar further said Gadkari plans to meet defence minister Rajnath Singh in this regard very soon. “The railway underbridge (RUB) at Uppalwadi, which is a part of the project will also take some months as Indian Railways took two years to clear the design,” he added.
The Y-shaped flyover in Sadar will be completed by September. “There is a six-month delay in the project because we did not get as much working time as estimated by us. Due to heavy traffic we had to reduce the speed of our work. In addition, many sewer and water lines that were not shown on municipal maps were found during excavation. It took some time to shift them,” said the RO.
The new railway overbridge (ROB) at Khapri will also be completed in another four to five months. “Earlier, railway officials inspected our structure and cleared it. However, recently their rules changed and now they asked us to get a third party inspection done. The private agency was demanding Rs1.5 crore. However, we managed to get the amount reduced,” said Chandrashekhar.
The outer ring road (ORR) got delayed due to land acquisition and unsatisfactory pace of work by the contractor. The contractor has promised to complete the work in one year after the entire land is handed over to him.
The RO said that BSNL refused to hand over its land in Mankapur. “The telecom agency demanded Rs40 crore for its land. We decided to go in for compulsory acquisition and paid Rs3 crore for it. BSNL approached lower court, where its plea was rejected. HC dismissed its petition on Monday. We have razed the boundary wall and taken possession of most of the land,” he added.
NHAI had started work on ORR believing that public works department (PWD) had acquired the entire land. However, many owners challenged the acquisition in courts and NHAI had to pay extra compensation. The contractor will now be asked to expedite his work.
The Pardi flyover, work on which started first, will not be complete before December 2020 in the best case scenario. “Nagpur Municipal Corporation (NMC) is expected to hand over the required land to us in a month. Then we will go after the contractor if he does not increase the pace of work,” said Chandrashekhar.
RUNNING LATE
* Automotive Square — Kanhan Road | Part completion in two months
* Residency Road flyover | Complete by September
* New Khapri ROB | Completion in four to five months
* Outer Ring Road | Complete in one year in best case scenario
* Pardi flyover | Complete by December 2020 in best case scenario