Underpass in north Delhi to open after 20-year delay
THE CIVIC BODY PLANS TO OPEN THE ENTIRE UNDERPASS, WHICH WILL LINK CENTRAL DELHI WITH WEST DELHI, BY JANUARY 2022
NEW DELHI: The Kishan Ganj underpass in north Delhi, one of the most delayed infrastructure projects in the city, is likely to be completed by January 2022, just ahead of the upcoming municipal corporation elections, officials overseeing its work said on Wednesday.
More than two decades after it was approved by the erstwhile unified Municipal Corporation of Delhi and 13 years after the work started, only one of four underpass sections is complete and open to traffic.
A senior North Delhi Municipal Corporation official, who is overseeing the project, said the three remaining concrete box sections under the railway line have been laid by the Northern Railway, which is currently carrying out the finishing work and the construction of the retention wall, before the site is handed over to the north corporation.
“Around 5% work remains. Once the site is handed over to the corporation, we will start constructing six 150m long approach roads -- three on each end of the underpass boxes. The approach roads will cost around ₹16 crore,” the official said, asking not to be named.
“We have sought the approval of the finance department for the approach road construction and we expect the nod to come in about a month. By then, the Northern Railway would have completed the remaining work,” the official quoted above said.
The civic body plans to open the entire underpass, which will link central Delhi with west Delhi, by January 2022, the official said. The project, once fully opened, will benefit the areas of Inderlok, Gulabi bagh, Sarai Rohila, Kishanganj, Padam Nagar, Pratap Nagar, Tri Nagar, Shanti Nagar and Rampura and nearby areas.
The project is also expected to decongest Sadar Bazar, Rohtak Road, areas under Walled City extension and Azad Market, the official said.
Although the three concrete boxes were laid in June, the handover to the north corporation was delayed on account of heavy rainfall, the construction of retention walls and encroachments near one of the three sections, said civic officials.
But a Northern Railway official, overseeing the project, said the municipal corporation can start the work on approach roads to two underpass sections. “The underpass boxes were installed in June. In July, we wrote to the municipal corporation that it can initiate work on approach roads but nothing was done so far. Underpass sections 2 and 3 can easily be made operational. Only section 4 is hindered by encroachments -- about 25 shanties have come up in front of the box,” the official said, also asking not to be named. He said the retention wall will be ready in 15 days.
Similar to the Rani Jhansi flyover near St Stephen’s Hospital, which took almost 10 years to build and was opened in 2018, the Kishan Ganj project, too, has witnessed several delays and changes.
Conceptualised in the early 1990s, the project was approved by the unified MCD in 1998. But the construction started only on June 30, 2008, and the underpass was expected to be ready by the 2010 Commonwealth Games at a cost of ₹25 crore.
One of the four boxes was inaugurated in 2018, by then Union minister Dr Harsh Vardhan. In 2019, the ministry of housing and urban affairs decided to provide 80% funding to the project so that the remaining sections are completed.
But delays still dogged the project. Corporation officials say the financial crunch that the civic body faced over the years, as well as hurdles in land acquisition, the time taken to shift utilities, and the relocation of existing shops and religious structures ended up delaying the project even more.
“More than 200 shops had to be shifted from the site. Two transformer substations were relocated and five religious structures were also moved from the work site,” the civic body official said.