Pataudi-Rewari highway project crawls, NHAI notice to company for delay in project

GURUGRAM: With the 46km-long Gurugram-Pataudi-Rewari national highway (NH 352W) project running well over a year behind schedule, the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) has pulled up the construction company for the delay.
Union transport minister Nitin Gadkari laid the foundation stone of the project through a digital programme in July 2020 with a deadline of December 2022. However, only around 15% of the construction work has been completed to date.
At a meeting on Tuesday, NHAI officials told Gadkari that the highways authority recently issued a notice to the private contractor, seeking reasons behind the delay in meeting the construction milestone set in the contract. Union minister and Gurugram MP Rao Inderjit Singh was also present at the meeting.
Estimated to cost Rs 1,500 crore, the highway will have 81 culverts and 23 underpasses. More than 5,000 acres of land in 27 villages have been acquired for the project. The road will start from Hero Honda Chowk in Gurugram and culminate in Rewari via Pataudi. And once operational, this road will cut short the travel time.
At the meeting, Gadkari also gave the go-ahead for the construction of an elevated road aimed at decongesting the 3.2km-stretch between Hero Honda Chowk on NH-8 and Umang Bhardwaj Chowk. The elevated road was originally proposed by the Gurugram MP.
“Gadkari has directed officials to prepare a proposal in view of the traffic flow on this road in the next 25 years. He said that the additional money required for the construction of the elevated road would be provided by the NHAI,” Rao Inderjit told TOI. Currently, the road from Hero Honda Chowk to Umang Bhardwaj Chowk is being widened from two lanes to four by the NHAI.
According to Gadkari, the first phase of the 1,350km Delhi-Mumbai expressway — from Gurugram to Dausa near Pink City — is almost complete and Prime Minister Narendra Modi is likely to inaugurate the stretch. Once operational, people will be able to travel non-stop from Gurugram to Jaipur in just 2.5 hours.
The Rs 1 lakh crore Delhi-Mumbai Expressway project will also reduce the distance between the two metros from 1,450km by road via NH-8 to approximately 1,250 km. The expressway will connect five states — Haryana (79 km), Rajasthan (380 km), Madhya Pradesh (370 km), Gujarat (300 km) and Maharashtra (120 km).
At the meeting, the Gurugram MP also drew the attention of Gadkari towards the delay in starting construction works of flyovers at Manesar, Bilaspur Chowk and Bawal Chowk, and an underpass at Panchgaon chowk on the Delhi-Jaipur highway, even after the inauguration of the same.
On this, NHAI officials told Gadkari that the contractor left in the middle and “now we have allotted the work to another contractor”. Recarpeting of the expressway has been completed in a 10km stretch from Jaipur to Delhi side. “Gadkari directed the NHAI officials to endure completion of the works in 14 months,” Rao Inderjit said.