Not a single road built by MCDS in 5 yrs

NEWDELHI: The municipal corporations of Delhi have not constructed a single new road, flyover or underpass in the past five years, the Comptroller and Auditor General of India said in its latest report, which was tabled in the Delhi Assembly on Tuesday.

The central auditor has also pointed out an acute lack of coordination between different road maintenance agencies in the national Capital.

“Even the Delhi government, responsible for improving road infrastructure in city, did not establish any administrative structure to coordinate the efforts of Public Works Department, Delhi Development Authority and other agencies,” said the report.

The report also pointed out unnecessary escalation in project cost, wasteful expenditure, abnormal delays and lack of monitoring by three MCDS among other reasons behind non-completion of various projects.

RANI JHASI FLYOVER

One of the most delayed infrastructure projects in the city, the Rani Jhansi grade separator project was aimed at providing hurdle-free ride between the Interstate Bus Terminal, Kashmere Gate and Idgah. The CAG report pointed out that from the initial sanctioned budget of Rs 177.72 crore, the cost of the project of the has escalated to Rs 724.22 crore (estimated in August 2014).

“Also, the possibility of enhancement of rates in post-tender stage fraudulently allowed by the MCD officials could not be ruled out,” the report said.

A senior North corporation official, however, denied the charges and said, “It is not possible to change the figure, especially post tender,” he said.

NAUROJI NAGAR AND PUSHP VIHAR NULLAH

The MCD approached the Lieutenant Governor twice- in 2009 and 2011, with a submission to cover these nallahs by allowing percolation of water through various channels. This was done despite the direction issued by the Unified Traffic and Transport Infrastructure (Planning and Governing) Engineering Centre (UTTIPEC) in February 2010 for not covering of drains.

The project were stopped after an application filed in National Green Tribunal (NGT) against these projects in January 2015.

POOR MONITORING

From April 2012 to March 2017, total 127 works having contract value of Rs 545.94 crore were completed by the three municipalities but in none of these cases requisite certificate was obtained from MCD officials by the contractors, the CAG report said.

2012-13

But for construction of new roads, flyover or underpass in this time period 2016-17

liabilities accumulated due to mismatch of works sanctioned and funds released by South and North Corporation

wasteful expenditure on project to cover nallah at Nauroji Nagar and Pushp Vihar without adherence to environmental norms