Noida gets Metro’s nod to complete underpass work

Noida: The Noida Authority can now complete the remaining 80-metre stretch of the sector 52-71 underpass, which has been stuck for some months now.
The commissioner of metro railway safety gave the go-ahead to the Authority on Tuesday to commence work around the metro pillar. This pillar was in the vicinity of the under-construction underpass. Officials said the route will be thrown open from September 1.
However, the Authority has been asked not to use any heavy machines or earth movers around the metro pillar while finishing work on the remaining 80-metre stretch. In fact, the commissioner visited the site on July 16 to inspect the area and the progress made by the Authority.
During the visit, he had instructed the Noida Authority to be extremely cautious while carrying out the construction work around the pillar area.
According to Authority officials, the pillar area will be accommodated in the road median that will be built between the two carriageways that will connect City Centre with Parthala Chowk. The median will be 2.5-metre-wide and will be built manually by the workers deployed at the site. Out of the 780-metre-long underpass, civil work on just 80-metre stretch is left to be commissioned.
The project is already running late by more than seven months as the original deadline of its execution was December 2020. Due to the pandemic and delay in getting clearance from the metro railway safety commissioner, work on the project has slowed down from March this year. While vehicular movement has been allowed towards Sector 61 and Indirapuram via Vishwakarma Marg, the City Centre to Parthala Chowk route via Vikas Marg is yet to be opened up.
Also the Authority will have to redesign the intersection with future needs in mind. A large commercial plot spanning over 12.3 acre wide land, will come up extremely close to the intersection. Planning and designing of the rotary planned near the intersection is yet to be done and the Authority will decide how to organise the flow of the traffic via the crossing.
Planned with a budget of Rs 52 crore, the project cost has been revised to Rs 59 crore due to additional work required on the stretch.