Delhi-Gurgaon toll road project gets more muddled

September 27, 2013

MAMUNI DAS

Ministry looking at making a criminal liability case

NEW DELHI, SEPT :

The Delhi-Gurgaon toll road project is getting further tangled in controversies. The Highways Ministry is considering whether a criminal liability case can be made on the project.

This is what emerges in a letter sent by Highway Ministry Secretary Vijay Chhibber to NHAI Chairman R.P. Singh on Thursday.

Simultaneously, the Haryana Government has backed off from its earlier stated intention of buying out the project to make it toll free and ease the pain for commuters facing jams on the toll road. With this, National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) will have to buy-back the concession agreement, at the earliest, the Secretary said.

On Wednesday, NHAI Chairman had written to Highway Secretary to decide how the project could be handed over to Haryana State Government.

A day later, on Thursday, the Road Secretary wrote back to NHAI that in a meeting between Highways Minister and Haryana Chief Minister – held in the presence of Highway Secretary, NHAI Chairman and Haryana Chief Secretary – it was “patently clear that the Government of Haryana is not pursuing its earlier intention of buying out that project”.

Given the importance of the issue and the prevailing uncertainty, the Ministry will also seek assistance from Attorney General to represent NHAI in pursuing this matter in Delhi High Court. This project is already under dispute due to the multiple issues and hearings are going in Delhi High Court.

Due to the toll road developer not meeting his commitments on road maintenance and commuters facing a lot of inconvenience, NHAI had decided to terminate the project.

But, the project lenders – currently led by IDFC – have given more money to the developer than the project cost agreed upon by the Government. So, if the contract is cancelled, they will get less money from the NHAI. Now, the lenders do not want NHAI to cancel the project as they have to chase the road developer – DSC Ltd – for the repayment, who is already financially stressed.

Indications are that the issue has been referred to Chief Vigilance Commissioner and the Enforcement Directorate to pursue whether the road developer had used inter-corporate deposit route to transfer funds from the escrow account, where toll money received from project were kept.

Source-http://www.thehindubusinessline.com

Written by ITW Editor · Filed Under Delhi-Gurgaon, NHAI, Projects, Road, Road Transport and Highways (Ministry), Tolling

Transport Ministry promises repairs to Hero Honda Chowk

September 18, 2013

By Ajay Kumar

Commuters using one of the most accident-prone roads, the Hero Honda Chowk on the Delhi-Gurgaon Expressway, can breathe a sigh of relief, at least for now. The Union Minister for Road Transport and Highways, Oscar Fernandes, has finally taken note of the deteriorating condition of the road.

He inspected the road in Gurgaon on Saturday, and said all stakeholders would have to come together to find a tangible solution to the problems being faced by locals in the area. Fernandes also assured residents that he would permanently resolve the issue by the end of this month.

The locals have long demanded construction of a flyover or an under pass and foot over bridge to minimise the number of accidents happening on the road.

“We studied the area with NHAI and the district administration officials to finalise suitable options of whether a flyover bridge or an under pass will be helpful for commuters,” Fernandes said.

The Union minister has already directed the DG of his ministry, K. Kandaswami to finalise the functioning model and Request for Qualification (RFQ) documents of a Clover leaf flyover and traffic light system.

A delegation of a Japanese construction company recently visited Hero Honda Chowk to survey the area.

The road has been in a state of despair ever since its construction. The main drain, which is 100 meters from the road is always overflowing adding to the deteriorating condition and leading to more potholes.

Meanwhile, Farnandes has directed the National Highway Authority of India (NHAI) to immediately repair the service roads and cover the drain along the sides of the service roads.

Gurgaon’s highways to hell: How Millennium City’s pot-holed roads pose a hazard to helpless commuters

September 18, 2013

By AJAY KUMAR

It is touted as the Millennium City, but the condition of the roads leading to Gurgaon is no less than deplorable. The pothole-riddled stretches, which are covered with slush, stones and dust, pose safety hazards to regular commuters who endure torment-filled drives every day.

The slow pace of traffic owing to dilapidated roads adds to the woes of motorists during peak hours. The worst affected include Mehrauli-Gurgaon Road, thanks to the Haryana Urban Development Authority (HUDA), which is known for its lackadaisical attitude to maintaining roads.

The stretch between Delhi-Gurgaon commercial toll plaza and Sahara mall in Gurgaon is also in a mess. Commuters are being forced to ride their vehicles at a snail’s pace, leading to traffic snarls in the mornings and evenings. Moreover, a lot of diversions and U-turns put more pressure on them.

The commuters, who travel from Mehrauli and Chattarpur to Gurgaon, also face a bumpy ride on the stretch as they enter Delhi border.

Gurgaon's highways to hell: How Millennium City's pot-holed roads pose a hazard to helpless commuters

No vision

Progressive Alliance Forum (PAF) – a citizen body in Gurgaon – has complained to the Haryana government about the dilapidated condition of the roads. The forum alleges that the HUDA did not have a futuristic vision while laying roads. Experts believe that deterioration takes place since the roads lack a strong base.

The companies have not createda strong base before building upper layers, the forum said.

“HUDA is not competent enough to take care of the roads. We complained to the state government in February, urging it to award contracts for road maintenance and construction to expert companies. The state government has given the road repairing-cum-widening job to bridges and roads wing of the PWD – a specialist in constructing highways,” PAF president Raman Sharma.

The agencies in Gurgaon do not carry out surveys – a mandatory procedure – before constructing roads. A survey is carried out to examine soil condition and materials used to lay the roads.

Even roads built using high-end technology deteriorate quickly because of the poor drainage system. For instance, the M.G Road in old Gurgaon is also in a shambles owing to the lack of good drainage system.

“Poor drainage system is deteriorating the condition of the road. We have directed engineers of our department to repair the road as soon as possible,” said a HUDA official.

Besides this, the Cyber City Road which connects Sikandarpur Metro station with NH 8, and roads that lead to DLF phase 3 are pothole-ridden. Road widening work being carried out between Sikanderpur Metro station and NH 8 also add to commuters’ woes.

Repair work on the Old Delhi Road between Udyog Vihar and Maruti Suzuki India Ltd Sector 18 plant has also stopped as both HUDA and Municipal Corporation of Gurgaon are engaged in a spat. One side of the road has been in a messy condition, leading to traffic snarls.

Old Delhi Road has significance as it connects posh Palam Vihar with Kapashera border in Delhi. According to sources, repair work on the road has been going on for more than six months.

Source-http://www.dailymail.co.uk

Written by ITW Editor · Filed Under Delhi-Gurgaon, Highway, Safety

Fernandes lauds HT campaign, bats for toll-free model

September 9, 2013

Sanjeev K Ahuja and Anupam Thapa, Hindustan Times New Delhi,

Lauding HT’s efforts to bring to light the issues plaguing commuters on the Delhi-Gurgaon expressway, Union minister for road transport and highways Oscar Fernandes has acknowledged the fact that the toll plazas have failed to deliver and hoped that the court delivers a favourable verdict in public interest.

The senior Congress leader on Tuesday congratulated the Hindustan Times team for carrying out relentless campaigns on the expressway and its toll plazas when the team met with him in New Delhi to hand over the petitions addressed to him by thousands of disgruntled commuters. He also went through a news report from HT’s ongoing “Taking a Toll” campaign which was started on July 29.

“There are reports that commuters are harassed at various toll plazas on various roads, but the Delhi-Gurgaon expressway is a different case as we see traffic jams on a daily basis here. This issue is being discussed in the high court and we hope that the decision would come in favour of the commuters. In the case of the expressway, people do not mind paying toll of R21 but they fail to get the benefit of paying the same,” said Fernandes.

The Rajya Sabha MP from Karnataka said that his ministry planned to launch a pilot project to test electronic tolling system, which would allow commuters to cross toll plazas without halting, and it, he said, would be implemented across all the national highways if it was successful.

While endorsing his support for the proposed toll-free model in which the commuters are not charged toll and the operator instead earns revenue out of non-toll options such as rentals out of real estate rights and advertisements, Fernandes said that this proposal could be tried as it did not affect revenue inflow for the operator.

The ministry of road transport and highways has zeroed in on Hero Honda crossing on the Delhi-Gurgaon expressway and Delhi-Dhasna Road for the project where the operator would be given out realty rights.

The commuters here would not have to pay toll for a trouble-free ride. “It is a good proposal as it does not affect the revenue intake and the commuter also does not need to pay toll,” said Fernandes.

Source-http://www.hindustantimes.com

Written by ITW Editor · Filed Under Delhi-Gurgaon, Expressway, News

Shortsighted plan caused eway’s doom?

September 9, 2013

Siddhartha Rai , Hindustan Times Gurgaon,

A goal without a plan is just a wish: the saying fits well in the case of Delhi-Gurgaon Expressway. The ambitious project, which was supposed to breach the barrier between the rural and the urban in Gurgaon, was doomed even before it took off, thanks to lack of planning and farsightedness.

In 2009, a parliamentary committee reviewed the effectiveness of public-private partnership in the execution of the expressway after a performance audit of the project by the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG).

The committee took a stern view of the planning “deficiencies” as “many critical items which should have been foreseen at the time of preparation of the detailed project report were omitted”.

”The expressway suffers from several macro-level planning flaws. The worst part is it was not foreseen that the road would be used by the Gurgaon traffic itself. Also, no thought was given about linking the two sides of the expressway in such a way that the main highway traffic was not disturbed. Congestions develop as local traffic gets mingled with highway traffic,” said Rohit Baluja, president of Institute of Road Traffic Education and director of College of Traffic Management.

These critical items of public interest were later covered under a changed scope of work order that amounted to nearly Rs. 150crore or 21% cost overruns. These neglected items included increasing the height of underpasses by two metres, construction of elevated stretches and additional underpasses, and pedestrian crossing facilities at appropriate places, among other things.

These items were the ones that became the kernel of a public movement in Gurgaon. Moreover, the parliamentary committee found the arguments extended by the ministry of road transport and highways as “nothing but lame excuses”.

“You cannot take any such report (CAG performance audit, 2008) as the final word. There is no inherent design or planning flaw with the expressway. Nobody could foresee the quantum of development in Gurgaon and thus could not anticipate this level of traffic. The main problem with the expressway is that of operation and efficiency. There can be many measures which can be taken by the concessionaire to correct things,” said RP Indoria, former director general (roads) and ex-special secretary, ministry of road transport and highways. Expressway concessionaire DGSCL, however, declined to comment on the issue.

The National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) had tried to argue before the committee that these changes had to be made in the light of unanticipated exponential growth in the areas around the highway.

The parliamentary committee made short work of these “excuses”. It harked back to the original traffic survey conducted by engineering consultancy company RITES in 2000 and marked that the development in the area referred to by the NHAI was not an expectation-defying explosion — the actual traffic volume in 2009 had been less than that projected by RITES.

“This negates the claim of the government of sudden rapid development in the areas around the expressway,” the committee had observed, adding, “Lamentably, these deficiencies have cost the exchequer a whopping Rs. 146crore that had to be paid by the government.” The parliamentary committee finally observed that the NHAI had tried to “camouflage” the “serious deficiencies” in the project, its “lack of professional competence” and “defective system of assessment” in the name of changes at the insistence of the Delhi and Haryana governments.

Source-http://www.hindustantimes.com/

Written by ITW Editor · Filed Under Delhi, Delhi-Gurgaon, Expressway, Gurgaon

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