Missing links on Haridwar stretch to be ready by Jan

NEW DELHI:
NEW DELHI: The nightmare faced by commuters using the Delhi-Haridwar stretch of NH-58 will soon become a thing of the past. National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) is claiming to make this stretch the key link to Uttarakhand and the Chinese border smoother by January when the holy city hosts the Kumbh Mela. Officials maintain that work on almost 23km of missing paved road between Meerut and Muzaffarnagar would be completed ahead of the largest religious congregation.

The project, however, has already been delayed by over seven months as work to widen 78km of the road to four lanes which started in March 2006 was targeted to be completed by March last. While work has been completed on a major part of this stretch, the bituminous road is missing on certain portions and it takes commuters almost six hours to cover 190km between Delhi and Haridwar. Uttarakhand PWD engineer-in-chief Lalit Mohan said the agency has written to the Centre to expedite the completion of the project and also to widen the stretch between Muzaffarnagar and Dehradun to four lane to meet increasing traffic demand.

"We expect the major traffic flow to be from Delhi side and so the remaining work needs to be completed. On our part, we have started paving the 29km from Haridwar towards Roorkee,'' Mohan said.

NHAI officials said though widening of the stretch between Muzaffarnagar and Dehradun has been cleared and bids have been invited, the work has not yet been awarded. "We have replaced the cash contractor for the stretch where there was no progress in the past months. Though it was awarded to NCC-Maytas joint venture, work halted after the Satyam controversy. Now, Gayatri Infrastructure has taken up the work,'' a senior NHAI official.

However, this does not seem to be the end of crisis for NHAI to complete the project. Officials admit they are stilling waiting to acquire about 3.5km stretch near Khatauli. "Only a few hundred metres have been handed over to us. We are still waiting for the large chunk to be acquired. We have even taken up the case with the chief minister. If UP government doesn't get that land for us, we can do nothing,'' said an official associated with land acquisition for NHAI projects.

TOI