Work at Loni underpass resumes after delays

Work at Loni underpass resumes after delays

After months of delays, work has lastly begun on the Loni Street underpass venture with the general public works division (PWD) initiating website preparations following a demolition drive to take away encroachments final week.

Bulldozers raze slum buildings in Loni on June 18. (Sanjeev Verma/HT Photograph)

PWD officers inspected the venture website on June 19 and issued a collection of instructions associated to utility relocation, site visitors planning and website growth. The 70 crore underpass, aimed toward making the Delhi-Uttar Pradesh hall in northeast Delhi signal-free, was permitted by the Delhi authorities in September 2022 however had seen no progress on the bottom owing to large-scale encroachments on the website and utility associated hurdles.

HT had earlier reported that the venture was stalled as a result of these bottlenecks. On June 18, the Delhi Growth Authority (DDA) and Municipal Company of Delhi (MCD) carried out a demolition drive on the website, clearing greater than two dozen buildings.

A PWD report, dated June 21, famous that the footpath in the direction of the Loni-RTO aspect has now been cleared of encroachments and utility shifting should start on precedence. The report additionally directed the manager engineer to use for tree slicing permissions and assess site visitors quantity, congestion factors and pedestrian motion.

“The engineer overseeing the venture has been directed to gather knowledge on site visitors quantity, congestion factors, and pedestrian motion—significantly for autos coming from Wazirabad Street in the direction of the left aspect of Loni Street. We additionally plan to handle the encroachments on that aspect of the venture website,” the official added.

Officers mentioned the underpass will take round 15 months to construct. As soon as full, it’s going to assist make the 10km stretch from Signature Bridge to the UP border signal-free. Loni Chowk, one of many busiest intersections in northeast Delhi, sees heavy vehicular site visitors between Delhi and Ghaziabad, Hindon and Loni through Wazirabad Street.

Through the inspection, officers famous that the restricted house on the left aspect of the street will make open-cut excavation difficult. To handle site visitors throughout building, concrete diaphragm partitions might be used on either side.

“In gentle of persistent waterlogging and seepage points on the Pragati Maidan tunnel and different underpasses, further waterproofing measures and sumps might be included within the venture,” the PWD report acknowledged.

Rohit Kumar, an area resident, mentioned the encroachments had been cleared over every week in the past, however particles and sludge stay. “They need to additionally restore the street,” he mentioned.

Rakesh Vashishth, a commuter from Loni, mentioned the underpass work have to be expedited, however within the meantime, the street and drainage want fixing. “The complete roundabout as much as Loni Pushta floods each time it rains,” he added.

Dr S Velmurugan, chief scientist at CRRI, mentioned land availability needs to be a prerequisite for any venture. “NHAI requires 90% of the land to be cleared earlier than work begins. Relocating utilities like energy and water traces shouldn’t be a hurdle as we speak,” he mentioned.

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