The Hindu : New Delhi News : East Delhi and Central Delhi to come closer

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Oct 26, 2007
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New Delhi

New Delhi

East Delhi and Central Delhi to come closer

Staff Reporter

NEW DELHI: Public Works Department Minister A. K. Walia has expressed the hope that with the commissioning of the new Geeta Colony Bridge over the Yamuna and the Disused Canal Road, a direct and fast link between East Delhi and Central Delhi will become available by this year-end.

Dr. Walia, who inspected these two projects along with senior PWD officials earlier this week, said the Geeta Colony Bridge, which is the eighth bridge over the Yamuna, would become the first infrastructural project to become fully operational before the upcoming Commonwealth Games-2010.

One of the carriageways of this bridge would be opened to traffic this December whereas the Disused Canal Road would become fully operational in November.

Incidentally, while Dr. Walia’s office claimed that “work on both these projects is running one-month ahead of schedule”, according to an advertisement issued by the Delhi Government on September 6, 2006, with photographs of both Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit and Dr. Walia on it, work on the Disused Canal Road was originally scheduled to begin in December 2004 and was to be completed by June 2007. As such, this project is six months late.

On the other hand, the Geeta Colony Bridge was to be completed by March 2008 and it seems it would be able to keep its date with the deadline. This six-lane bridge is being constructed at an estimated cost of Rs.129 crore.

It has dedicated bicycle tracks on both sides. Its terminal connections on Ring Road on the western side and Marginal Bund Road on the eastern side would be signal-free. The Government has claimed that this project will be completed before time without any cost overrun despite hindrances like delay in permission for cutting trees and delay in transfer of land by the Uttar Pradesh Government.

As for the Disused Canal Road, Dr. Walia said this Rs.96-crore project would not only provide an alternative parallel road to commuters from East Delhi up to Marginal Bund Road but also substantially de-congest Vikas Marg.

The Minister said 97 per cent of the work on the Disused Canal Road was complete.

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