Metro construction to hit brakes after 20 yrs

NEW DELHI: January 1, 2019, may begin without one of Delhi’s most ubiquitous sights for the past two decades –– Delhi Metro Rail Corp’s (DMRC) construction work.

DMRC is yet to receive approval for Phase 4 from the Delhi government, which has not cleared it since 2015.

After it receives the state government’s approval, DMRC will have to approach the Centre for its go-ahead.

Given that it is already the middle of October, there’s little chance of that changing by the end of the year.

Senior DMRC officials said that by the end of December they will finish Phase 3 and also start operations. In an e-mail response, DMRC confirmed this and added that with no approval in sight , it will “not be in a position to start the implementation of Phase 4”.

This is the first time since 1998 that Metro construction work will not take place in at least some part of the city.

Delhi’s Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government declined comment.

Chief minister Arvind Kejriwal has on two occasions in the past few months — the inauguration of the Janakpuri West-kalkaji Mandir section of the Magenta Line and the flagging off of the Durgabai Deshmukh South Campus-lajpat Nagar corridor of the Pink Line — assured that the Phase 4 proposal would be cleared “at the earliest” .

Union minister of housing and urban affairs Hardeep Singh Puri on Monday criticised the Kejriwal government for “holding up development projects in Delhi”.

He said that the Phase 4 proposal has been stuck with the Delhi government for almost three years now with no signs of progress.

“Whenever I meet the chief minister I remind him to expedite the Phase 4 proposal but he keeps giving some excuse or the other. There is a pattern with this government. They are not allowing development projects to happen,” Puri said.

There are six routes proposed under phase 4.

In media statements in April this year, the Delhi government “rejected” the proposed 21.73km Rithala-narela corridor and the 22km Tughlakabad-terminal 1 section, citing “financial losses”.

Senior Delhi government officials who asked not to be named said at the time that the other four corridors — Janakpuri West-rk Ashram (28.92km), Mukundpur-maujpur (12.54km), Inderlok-indraprastha (12.58km) and Lajpat Nagar-saket G Block (7.96km) — were cleared.

DMRC said on Monday that it has not received any official communication from the Delhi government rejecting these two routes or approving the other four routes. Anuj Dayal, executive director (corporate communications) at DMRC, said that the Delhi government had on January 29 intimated that two corridors (Rithala-narela and Tughlakabad-terminal 1) could be deferred for the time being. PATHANKOT: Family of a 24-yearold man, Jatinder Singh of Barth Sahib village in Pathankot district who died in a road mishap in Muscat (UAE) on Sunday has sought the central government’s help in bringing his body back, here.

“Jatinder was working with a private company as a crane operator in Muscat. He had gone abroad to earn money as we are economically weak,” said his father Kamal Jeet Singh.

“One of his colleague told us that Jatinder sustained serious injuries in the road mishap and later he succumbed to his injuries,” his father said.

“We are helpless. It is a request to the central government to help us bring our son’s body back.we have lost the sole breadwinner of the family,” he said.

Sarpanch Rajinder Singh said that he will also approach the district administration for help.