A long and winding road,the end not yet in sight

Under tremendous pressure from the Haryana government,the construction company will now give motorists what will essentially be joyrides over a ready stretch. K V Rao,chief operating officer,KMP Expressway Ltd,said the public would be allowed to begin using the first 10 to 15 kilometres from the Palwal end. “This will give the public a taste of the facility as also give us an opportunity to understand if commuters face any problems,” Rao said.

Conceived following orders of the Supreme Court on a litigation by environmentalist M C Mehta,the project was taken up by the Haryana State Industrial and Infrastructure Development Corporation (HSIIDC). Its implementation is being monitored by the Environmental Protection Control Authority (EPCA).

The C-shaped road,also called the Delhi Western Peripheral Expressway,is aimed at easing the load on highways leading into Delhi (see map). It will cross NH-1 (from Amritsar) near Kundli,NH-10 (from Fazilka) near Bahadurgarh,NH-8 (from Mumbai) at Manesar and NH-2 (from Kolkata) near Palwal. Apart from cutting several hours off the trips to Delhi from,say,Agra or Jaipur,it will also provide a vital link between Faridabad and Gurgaon through Palwal and Manesar.

The Rs 1,200-crore project was tendered out to a consortium of three private companies,KMP Expressway Ltd,on a build-operate-and-transfer basis. However,problems in the DSC Construction-led collaboration delayed the project for over an year from 2007-08. Construction began only when the partnership was settled afresh,an HSIIDC official said.

As of today,there has been only 64 per cent physical progress with construction going on simultaneously on many stretches. The project involves over 300 major and minor structures including flyovers,cloverleaf intersections,underpasses,railway over-bridges and toll plazas,many of which are yet to be completed.

“We have been monitoring the project’s implementation constantly. While there have been many unavoidable bottlenecks,there have been avoidable delays as well. The construction company has not given its best to the project,” said Randeep Singh Surjewala,Minister for Industries and PWD (Bridges & Roads).

One cause of delay was a change in the original plan midway through the project. Initially,the entire expressway was to have four lanes,for which the government had acquired right of way to 3,354 acres,which it handed over to the construction company. However,it was later decided that there would be six lanes at the interchanges where toll plazas would be considered. Additional land had to be acquired and owners objected at several places,leading to litigation.

The company attributes the delays to “extraneous constraints” including shortage of construction material due to a ban on mining in Haryana. “This is forcing us to procure aggregate from Rajasthan. Due to a shortage of aggregate,not only us but the entire construction industry in the region has been affected as resources are limited but demand is very high. There are so many other projects under way in and around Delhi,” Rao said.

“Then there are a host of other time-consuming issues which have to be resolved by the government constantly. For the 53-km stretch between Manesar and Palwal for instance,we are awaiting an IOCL pipeline clearance,a masjid area clearance… (there is) also a pending litigation for disputed land. There were several other issues which have been already been resolved by the government. These too are expected to be taken care of in the coming weeks and this stretch should begin operations in two-three months,” said Rao adding that construction had to be slowed down during the monsoon.

“The project is ambitious. And it is natural that there would be several issues on the ground once the construction begins. Though we appreciate that some delay could be because of litigation due to land acquisition and other bottlenecks,the entire blame cannot be attributed to us. We have reason to believe that the construction company could have performed much better than it did,” said Surjewala.

Earlier this year,the HSIIDC warned the company of penalties if the project is delayed further. EPCA chairman Bhure Lal held a review meeting in June and expressed his displeasure at the progress.

“We were assured by the company that the priority stretch would be complete by August 2011 and the entire project by November 2011. But there has been very little progress. Now we are serious about the penalty,” the HSIIDC official said.