Chilla elevated road gets UP cabinet nod

NOIDA: The UP cabinet on Tuesday approved the Rs 801-crore budget for the Chilla Elevated Road - a much-needed thrust to a project that was conceptualised a decade ago to unclog the Delhi-Noida route, but has been stuck for years over funding issues.
Once built, the stretch will be an uninterrupted 5.96km road between Mayur Vihar in Delhi to the Noida-Greater Noida Expressway near Mahamaya Flyover, avoiding all merging traffic from sectors 14A, 14, 15, 15A, 16 and 18 in Noida.

Its six lanes will likely ensure that office-goers and other commuters, who frequently get stuck in traffic jams to and from Noida Gate during rush hours, can cross the city borders within minutes. Those from Akshardham, Mayur Vihar, Kalindi Kunj and Sarita Vihar in the capital, and Noida and Greater Noida are expected to benefit.
Noida Authority CEO Ritu Maheshwari said on Wednesday that almost half of the project cost - around Rs 393.6 crore - will be borne by it, and the remaining will be provided by the central government's Gati Shakti scheme. The scheme facilitates financial assistance for infrastructure projects.
With the cabinet nod, the project's construction agency Uttar Pradesh State Bridge Corporation Ltd (UPSBCL) will be able to issue a fresh tender for the elevated road, Authority senior manager Vijay Rawal told TOI. Construction of the road is likely to take three and a half years after it begins.
"Under the arrangement, UPSBCL will provide technical supervision while the Noida Authority will oversee the project and release the funds," Rawal said.
Commuters said the project was crucial to decongest the Noida link road. "It will significantly reduce my travel time to and from Delhi as the elevated road will be signal-free," said Shashank Singh, a resident of Omicron-3 (Greater Noida) who has to cross the Chilla border to get to his office in Delhi.
The elevated road project was conceived in 2013, and its construction began in 2019 with an estimated cost of Rs 605 crore originally. At the time, the project cost was to be borne equally by the Noida Authority and UP government's public works department (PWD).
But work came to a halt soon after as PWD never released the funds. The Authority had contributed Rs 60 crore by then.
The stalemate continued, and by 2022, UPSBCL revised the budget to Rs 1,076 crore, citing an increase in cost of construction materials. The Authority rejected this figure, prompting the agency to lower the budget to Rs 912 crore, but that too was deemed inflated by the Authority.
Subsequently, the Authority brought in a third-party consultant, which recommended Rs 801 crore, and experts from IIT Mumbai vetted the calculation. The project file was finally sent to the empowered finance committee (EFC) of the UP government in September last year, which granted its approval and paved the way for the file to reach the cabinet's desk.