Ambience Mall underpass delayed by over three weeks

Gurgaon: The wait for the U-turn underpass on the Delhi-Gurgaon expressway has been further extended by over three weeks as the construction work has come to a standstill with workers migrating back to their villages.
The construction of the U-turn underpass near Ambience Mall has hit a roadblock because of a delay in shifting the Indraprastha Gas Limited (IGL) gas pipeline due to the ban on non-medical use of oxygen. The project was supposed to be completed last year.
The NHAI and its contractor have claimed that the lockdown restrictions coupled with delay in shifting the IGL pipeline had halted their work for the past few days. “The workforce had come down significantly due to the lockdown in Delhi followed by curbs in the city. We managed to retain a few workers as the work was still in progress. However, for the past few days, our work had come to standstill because of the delay in shifting the pipeline. As there was no work and no clarity when it would restart, workers started leaving and now we are left with not a single worker,” said an official of RK contractor, NHAI’s project contractor.
The NHAI claimed that repeated correspondence with the agency tasked with the shifting of the gas pipeline did not yield any positive response. “They say that their employees have been infected with Covid. Also, there’s a ban on the industrial use of medical oxygen, which is required for welding purposes,” said an NHAI official.
IGL, meanwhile, denied that the ban on the use of medical oxygen for industrial purposes was the reason for the delay. “The delay is primarily because the majority of our workers have tested positive. We do not have enough resources to deploy on the project site at the moment. We had completed most of our shifting work and the remaining will be done as soon as we get our workforce strength back,” said a senior official of IGL.
Last month before the Covid surge, NHAI had told TOI that the U-turn underpass will be thrown open for the public by May 15.