It’s a long, long wait for KMP Expressway
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.
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