Dwarka Expressway’s cloverleaf link with NH-8 may not be ready till 2022 end

Gurgaon: With the MCG apparently dragging its feet on handing over 0.3 acres of land near Kherki Daula to the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI), the cloverleaf flyover of Dwarka Expressway, a crucial interchange with NH-8, may not be completed before the end of 2022. NHAI officials said the civic body has been delaying the process of handing over land for nearly three years now.
As per the agreement between the two bodies, MCG had to shift a cremation ground and Shani temple from the said land to an alternative site and hand over the encumbrance-free land to the highways authority. It took over two years to shift the cremation ground to an alternate site, while the shifting of the temple is still stuck in a limbo.
Last month, TOI reported that in a meeting held between the two bodies, MCG had sought time till July 31 to hand over the encumbrance-free land to the NHAI to begin the work on the crucial interchange of Dwarka Expressway. Based on the civic body’s commitment, the NHAI had once again pushed its deadline of completing the construction of the structure to August 2021.
A senior NHAI official said, “The deadline for the completion of the structure depends on when we’ll get the complete land that is still stuck with the MCG. We’ve had a series of correspondence but the matter has been delayed beyond a point. It will take at least one year to build the cloverleaf intersection, given that we do not encounter any unforeseen incidents that obstruct the construction activities.”
Part of package 4 of Dwarka Expressway, the cloverleaf interchange is to be built on 14 hectares of land, of which the NHAI already had around 13 hectares. The project is delayed by over three years and the NHAI has already missed its revised deadline of December 2020 due to red tape and lackadaisical approach of the MCG in handing over the required 0.3 acres. Though the cremation ground was shifted to an alternate site earlier this year, the advent of the second wave of Covid-19 delayed the shifting process of the temple.
Initially, the MCG pushed the deadline to hand over the land to June 30. The corporation further pushed it to the end of July claiming that it was involved in mitigating the yearly and persistent problem of the city — waterlogging during monsoons. But, the MCG once again failed to meet the committed deadline.
MCG officials remained unavailable, despite repeated attempts to contact them.