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At a high-level meeting held last week, the Centre pulled up the Delhi Urban Arts Commission (DUAC) and asked it to expedite the consent for all Games projects. Chaired by Urban Development Minister Jaipal Reddy, the meeting was attended among others by Lieutenant Governor Tejendra Khanna, Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit, and DUAC chief Charles Correa.
The Games review meeting looked at five projects in particular:
* The East-West Corridor, from Akshardham Temple to New Delhi railway station, which will later extend all the way to Punjabi Bagh
* The UP link, from Noida border to Akshardham Temple
* Anand Vihar ISBT road upgrade project, from Games Village to the Yamuna sports complex
* Flyover on Bahadur Shah Zafar Marg, which will later link to the East-West Corridor, and
* The Tunnel Road, though with a changed design.
Sources in Raj Niwas said the meeting was primarily held to convey the DUAC about the need to hasten the approval for these projects, essential for proper traffic flow during the event. “Plans for these projects are lying with the DUAC and they need to pass them before the government can implement them,” an official, who did not wish to be named, said. “We addressed concerns that the DUAC members had on various projects, and they seemed amenable to the changes.”
An immediate effect of the meeting is that DUAC has already given in-principle approval to the UP link project. This will the first of the five Games projects to take off soon as the Delhi government gets official intimation, a PWD official said. “The link road will serve as an Outer Ring Road in areas presently left untouched by the Outer Ring Road,” the official said. “This will be an eight-lane route, and the UP Link will serve as a gateway to Delhi for both Noida as well as Greater Noida once the Games are over.”
The official said DUAC has “passed” the project.
Nod after site visit
Last week Chief Minister Dikshit also made a detailed site inspection of the East-West Corridor, accompanied by a DUAC member. The project involves building a flyover above an existing one.
A senior Delhi government official said on Saturday that DUAC’s primary reservation with the Corridor was its height — the elevated road is proposed to be 15 meters high. “They had asked us to look for alternative designs,” the official said. “But it is not feasible for us to go underground in this area due to various reasons. The DUAC has now accepted the necessity of this project and the existing design.”
The controversial Tunnel Road project, meanwhile, is likely to take off with certain changes, Newsline has learnt. “It will not entirely be a tunnel road,” said officials involved in the project. “Instead, it will be a depressed road for a large section — around 2 km of the corridor. DUAC had reservations about nearby heritage areas but we pointed out that though Rome is a heritage city it still has tunnel roads crisscrossing the entire city.”
Officials said the government has “taken DUAC’s reservations into consideration but is not bound to follow what they (DUAC) say”.
Last year, a three-member committee appointed by the government had shot down the proposal. The government has since made changes, officials said. The PWD will now redraw plans for the Corridor and submit it to the Centre.
The Sheila government has also initiated the process of transfer of land with the UP Government for the UP link corridor. Officials said the matter would soon be taken up at the Chief Secretaries’ level.
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