Signature Bridge to be ready by October: PWD

NEW DELHI: The Public Works Department (PWD) on Friday informed the Delhi High Court that the construction of Signature Bridge would be completed by October-end, following which the trial run would be conducted. The submissions came after the court had, during the last hearing in the case, rapped the authorities for delaying the project.

Following the submission, a bench of Chief Justice Rajendra Menon and Justice V Kameswar Rao stated that the matter would be heard only after the project is completed and posted the matter for November.

“List the matter in the second week of November to enable the respondents (authorities) to complete the project and do the trial and file a report,” the court said.

The court was hearing a plea filed by advocate Pratibha Chopra, who had, in her petition, pointed out the inordinate delay in completing the project and had alleged the authorities had missed several deadlines – set to complete the project -- since 2011.

Even at an earlier occasion, the court had rapped the authorities for “quibbling over” the amount to be paid for the construction of the long overdue Signature Bridge. It had also asked for physical inspection of the bridge by various authorities to take a stock of the progress of the work.

Conceptualised in 2004, the Signature Bridge project was approved by the Delhi cabinet in 2007. However, even after 15 years, the bridge is yet to be completed. It bridge will connect Delhi with Uttar Pradesh’s industrial areas such as the Tronica city in Ghaziabad.

In July 2017, the Aam Aadmi Party government had released Rs 100 crore for the project and set a new deadline of March 2018, which was further pushed to April 2018, June 2018, and now, to October 2018.