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Work on Old Delhi-Gurugram road to resume soon By Hindustan Times

Stalled since October 2017, work to upgrade the Old Delhi-Gurugram Road is set to resume soon with the forest department giving its nod to cut 600 trees for the project.

Officials of the Municipal Corporation of Gurugram (MCG) said on Wednesday that work will “resume in the coming days”. The civic body plans to widen the four-lane road to six lanes to take the traffic load off the expressway on NH 48.

The approval for the project comes on the heels of the Centre approving felling of more than 9,000 trees for the widening of Sohna Road and construction of a flyover. The Ministry of Environment and Forest (MoEF) has also granted permission to the Public Works Department to cut 1,300 trees for constructing a flyover and an underpass at Atul Kataria Chowk, which is also located on the old Delhi-Gurugram road.

Incidentally, last month, the MCG officials had said that they were looking to plant 3,000 saplings on Old Delhi-Gurugram Road along with four other roads to increase green cover in the city.

The road widening project has been stuck for the past 10 months as the MCG was waiting for the forest department to transfer the land required for the project to the civic body.

ND Vashisht, MCG’s chief engineer, said a no objection certificate (NOC) has been “dispatched” by the forest department, and the engineering wing has started making necessary arrangements to resume work.

“The forest department has dispatched the NOC document and it is expected to arrive by either Friday or Monday. In the interim, the engineering wing has been alerted about the development and coordination with the concessionaire has been initiated for construction to resume,” Vashisht said.

Deepak Nanda, district forest officer of Gurugram, also confirmed the development, but said he was yet to check whether the NOC had been dispatched or not.

“With offices closed on Independence Day, I will only be able to verify whether the letter has been dispatched on Thursday,” he said, refusing to comment any further on the matter.

According to officials, upgrading of the road is aimed at reducing traffic volume on the Delhi-Gurugram expressway while also making Old Delhi-Gurugram Road a more feasible option for commuters.

Besides expanding the four lane, 7.5-km-long road between Dhundahera border and Mahavir Chowk to a six lane stretch, the Rs 36.16 crore project also includes construction of slip roads, cycle and pedestrian tracks, traffic signals, foot overbridges, and stormwater drains at four main junctions — Hanuman Chowk, Jwala Mill T-point, Sector 18 T-point and Sector 21 T-point.

Officials of the Haryana Vision Zero — a campaign launched by the state government last year to ensure zero deaths in road accidents — had identified Hanuman Chowk and Jwala Mill T-point as two of the five most pedestrian unfriendly spots in the city.

Work on the project had started in 2014 but has been delayed for multiple reasons, including revision of the detailed project report in May 2015, revision of the cost of the project from ₹56 crore to ₹36.16 crore in June 2016 and following objections by the revenue committee of the MCG regarding the cost of the project.

A concessionaire had been selected in June 2016 but residents of Dundahera had stalled work only months later, in September 2016, claiming the work would hamper the flow of water in the “natural drains located along the stretch”, causing rainwater to flood their houses.

The MCG officials had held a series of meetings and clarified that separate stormwater drains would be constructed along the stretch to tackle waterlogging.

First Published: Aug 16, 2018 04:51 IST

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