NOIDA AUTHORITY TO RESTART WORK ON CHILLA ELEVATED ROAD

NOIDA: The Noida authority is likely to restart work on the Chilla elevated road -- a mega project aimed at providing seamless connectivity between Noida and Delhi that was stopped last year for shortage of funds. The authority has written a letter to the state government asking it to direct the public works department (PWD) to release funds for the project.

In March last year, the authority asked the staff to stop work on the 5.5km Chilla elevated road due to the financial crisis. This was the first time that the board decided to halt work on such a big infrastructure project citing financial issues, said officials of the Noida authority adding that since then, the work on the project has been put on hold.

The PWD and the Noida authorities are supposed to bear 50% costs of the project that is pegged at ₹605.30 crore. Since the PWD has not provided the funds for the project, the work was stopped in March last year. The Noida authority has already spent ₹74 crore on the project.

“We are likely to restart work at the site as the funding issues are being resolved,” said Neha Sharma, additional CEO of the Noida authority. The authority is also writing a letter to the UP government so that the funding issue can be resolved at the earliest and the works can be taken up on a priority basis.

“We have taken up the matter with deputy chief minister Keshav Prasad Maurya. It was decided that the funding proposal will soon be approved by the state cabinet. Once it’s approved, the PWD will start releasing funds for the project,” Noida MLA Pankaj Singh, who pursued the funding issue with the government after repeated appeals from residents.

“The Chilla elevated road will benefit commuters travelling from and to Delhi and Noida,” said an official from Noida authority. The authority started work on the elevated road on January 25, 2019. The elevated road will ease traffic on the existing Noida-delhi Link Road that connects Delhi’s Mayur Vihar with Noida Expressway.