Vadodara: It was supposed to be a showcase project that would be completed ahead of the Vadodara Municipal Corporation (VMC) polls, but thanks to the delay caused by the lockdown and other hurdles, the longest flyover within a city is set to overshoot its deadline significantly.
After the project being cleared in October 2017, the work for the flyover had begun in 2018 and it was expected to get over last month. But a series of roadblocks, including the lockdown has delayed the project significantly and it may be a daunting task to complete it even before the postponed civic polls.
The 3.5km long flyover begins at Genda Circle and ends at Manisha Chowkdi on the Old Padra Road. It is coming up at a cost of Rs 222.18 crore, excluding expenses involved in shifting service lines or other similar work. Sources in the civic body said that the work was affected even before the lockdown, due to the work on shifting of drainage, water, telephone and other lines. Officials said that there were also cave ins along the Old Padra Road due to drainage pipeline leakages and work had to be taken up to repair these pipelines. Sources in the civic body said that it had become evident when the lockdown was imposed that the project would not get over in time.
The BJP was hoping that the project gets over on schedule in November so that it could talk about it in the polls, but that may not happen. While the polls may have been delayed due the pandemic, completing work on the project before February when polls are planned may be a difficult task.