NHAI speeds up chronically delayed projects in Uttar Pradesh

LUCKNOW: The massive traffic congestion on the busy Lucknow Kanpur highway could soon be a thing of past, as the widening of the project is slated to be completed by early July. A vital link between the state capital-Lucknow and the industrial city of Uttar Pradesh-Kanpur, the highway has been congestion prone for nearly a decade, with vehicle pile up of more than a kilometer long being a common sight in recent months. The highway widening project which started in December 2005, had given some hope but the project getting delayed torn between the tussle of the state government with NHAI.

Six other chronically delayed highway projects linking various parts of Uttar Pradesh have also been put on fast track ever since the new dispensation at the centre and the state government’s changed priorities have put development of the forefront.

“We are hopeful of completing the Lucknow-Kanpur highway widening project by June end or early July. Most of the stretch has already been completed and only two small portions of Jajmau Ganga Bridge to Ramadevi Crossing and another 16.2 kilometer stretch of the highway are pending. We have cleared all roadblocks for the completion of these two stretches and are monitoring the progress on a daily basis” said Chief General Manager, NHAI-UP, Col (Retired) Kushwant Singh.

The Jajmau Ganga Bridge to Rama Devi Crossing on the NH-25 was awarded Gammon India in December 2005 but the progress has been excruciatingly slow. While an ASI protected site caused some delays the resource mobilization of the contractor Gammon India Ltd was also slow.

Similarly the 16.2 km stretch of the NH-25 Lucknow Kanpur highway was awarded to Niraj Cement Structural Ltd in February 2010 but the completion of the project kept getting delayed several times.

Other long delayed projects of NHAI are the Moradabad Bareilly NH-24 project awarded to IL&FS in Dec 2010, Ghaziabad-Aligarh NH 91 awarded to PNC, Galfar & SREI Joint Venture in Feb 2011, Bareilly-Sitapur NH-24 awarded to ERA-SIBMOST JV, Rae Bareilly-Allahabad NH-24-B awarded to VIL, Agra Bypass to PNC Infratech, and Delhi Agra NH-2 awarded to Reliance Infrastructure in October 2012.

“While initially the delay was due to land acquisition issues, the lack of a State Support Agreement between the NHAI and UP government was another big hindrance. In many cases the contractors were also slow in mobilizing resources on the ground. However, over the last few months all the issues were addressed. As a result the Moradabad-Bareilly project and Ghaziabad-Aligarh project are now complete. The remaining four delayed projects have been given new completion dates and are rolling on full steam. The Lucknow-Kanpur project was the most criticized one and causing problem to large number of people including industrialists, but we are now monitoring it on a daily basis and will complete it by June-July 2015” said Col Kushwant Singh.