It’s a long, long wait for KMP Expressway

Aditya DevOct 16, 2012, 08.03AM IST

GURGAON: Even as the Haryana and Delhi governments have set May 2013 the fresh deadline for completing the 135-km Kundli-Manesar-Palwal (KMP) Expressway, the project has made an overall progress of just about 70% so far.

The private concessionaire developing the expressway, KMP Expressways Ltd, on the other hand claims that the 53-km priority stretch between Manesar and Palwal is scheduled to be completed by November 2012 and will open to public by December. Over 85% work on the stretch has been completed, with all the 83 major structures ready and already connected to the main carriageway.

The major structures on the stretch include 14 small and big bridges, 8 cattle crossings, 12 agriculture vehicle underpasses, 23 pedestrian crossings, 21 underpasses and 5 box culverts.

At present, the final layer of dense bituminous macadam, the commonly used bituminous paving mixes in India, is being laid and has been done for up to 48 km of the total stretch of 53 km. The rest would be completed soon, said a spokesperson.

Completion of KMP Expressway will help de-congest traffic in the city as vehicles coming from Punjab, Haryana and Himachal Pradesh and going to Rajasthan, Gujarat and Maharashtra will use it to avoid Delhi and Gurgaon.

The concessionaire made the commitment at a meeting held on June 8 2012 in Delhi between the chief ministers of Haryana and Delhi, to open the Manesar-Palwal section for tolling within the next 90 to 120 days and complete the expressway by May 31 2013.

Haryana chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda had told TOI, "Decidedly, the progress on the project is slow and the concessionaire has been asked by various authorities including the high powered committee (expressway) Haryana, monitoring committee constituted by the Supreme Court, chairman/ EPCA for NCR, besides HSIIDC and an independent consultant, to speed up the work. The HSIIDC has already imposed damages on the concessionaire for delay in meeting the commercial operation date to the extent of 0.1 per cent of the total project cost per week or part hereof since July 30 2009 till the commercial operation date is met."

According to the chief minister's office, as per the latest progress report received from the concessionaire, the physical progress achieved up to July 31 2012 is 67.76 per cent (Rs 1,003.54 crore) with monthly physical progress of 0.03 per cent (Rs 0.39 crore). The concessionaire has intimated that the gross financial progress achieved up to July 31 2012 is 76.56 per cent (Rs 1262.04 crore) with monthly financial progress of 0.02 per cent (Rs 0.30 crore).

The concessionaire, on the other hand, blames a litigation case and difficulty in getting clearances from various agencies for project delay. "Right at the beginning of the project there was a delay of 18 months due to litigation by one of the consortium partners. The project got further delayed due to much time taken in getting clearances and approvals from specific authorities. These included delays in getting clearances for crossing Indian Oil Corporation Ltd. pipelines, relocation of high tension overhead transmission lines and land acquisition issues," said the spokesperson.

There were delays in getting the final design change approvals for the railway over bridges, grade separators and design changes done in the original design to address the concerns of the local villagers.

Najafgarh to get 3 flyovers

With an aim to initiate development projects in Najafgarh sub-city in Outer Delhi, Public Work Department (PWD) has decided to construct three flyovers at vital link roads at Najafgarh chowk. These flyovers will connect the areas with Gurgaon, Jhajjar and Bahadurgarh and also provide hassle-free traffic movement at this stretch.

Talking to The Pioneer, PWD Minister Raj Kumar Chauhan said that PWD had decided to construct three flyovers at Najafgarh chowk connecting Sai Dham Temple to Dhansa road, Dichaon Kalan depot to Dhansa road on Nangloi road and Haibatpura extension to Dhansa road to provide commuters hassle-free journey on this stretch. “The PWD has been directed to appoint consultant to conduct detailed drawings and traffic feasibility report for this purpose. This is the only stretch, which connects Gurgaon, Jhajjar and Bahadurgarh to Najafgarh chowk in Delhi. It is now important to decongest Najafgarh chowk in view of another proposal which is being ready between Jhajjar and Dwarka,” said Chauhan.

According to Chauhan, the proposed flyover between Sai Dham Temple and Dhansa road and Dichaon Kalan depot to Dhansa road via Nangloi will be two kilometre long while flyover from Haibatpura extension to Dhansa road will be about 0.700 kms long. The Najafgarh sub-city chowk in west Delhi is heavily crowded from four directions. The chowk is surrounding by thousands of villages in west Delhi, hence large number of pedestrians also use this chowk for reaching nearest bus stands — Delhi Gate, Chhawla, Dhansa, Nangloi, Sai Dham Temple and Bahadurgarh bus stand. Beside this, there are four schools located near Najafgarh chowk also use these roads as footpath. PWD officials say the traffic volume during the peak hours are very high at this stretch and traffic jam is a routine affairs at Najafgarh chowk.