Underpasses, which should normally take 11 months to be completed, even though PWD officials have managed to construct one in six and a half months, usually take three years to be completed. At the moment, there are 12 underpasses under construction in various parts of the Capital. All of them are behind schedule and the work is disrupting traffic on busy roads such as Vikas Marg near Preet Vihar, the road in front of AIIMS hospital and the Ring Road stretch near Munirka. Most of these roads have been partially blocked for over three years now.

However, the most glaring example of this delay is the underpass being built at Najafgarh Road in Kirti Nagar. Three years down the line, only 10 per cent of the work has been completed. Work at the Aurobindo Marg subway, connecting AIIMS to Safdarjung hospital, has also been going on for three years now.

Similarly, the one at Munirka has also been under construction for two and a half years as of now. Officials involved with the projects trot out various excuses for the delay, yet the upshot is that it is Delhiites who suffer till the project is completed.

Just today, an underpass at Rafi Marg was inaugurated by NDMC Chairman B.P. Misra. It took two and a half years to complete.

The government also ends up spending more money if the project takes more than its stipulated time.

Justifying the delay (virtually every subway project with the MCD is behind schedule), Vinod Vats, executive officer to Engineer-in-Chief at MCD: ``Building an underpass is not an easy task as it entails shifting of all utility services which have lines laid beneath the ground. We have to contact officials of Delhi Jal Board (DJB), Delhi Vidyut Board (DVB) and Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Limited (MTNL). Moreover the traffic diversion plan has to be approved by the traffic police. ``Since so many agencies are involved, it takes a lot of time as all these services have to be shifted to alternate sites before work can actually commence.''

And so the story goes on. Officials from the Public Works Department (PWD), who are constructing six underpasses in the Capital right now, say that they face different problems with different project and it is not the construction, but finding solutions to these problems which puts them behind schedule.

K.B. Rajoria, Engineer-in-Chief, PWD, says: ``The project at Munirka was delayed because the local residents went on protest and did not let us build it. They wanted us to build a four-armed underpass instead of a three-armed one. So the entire design had to be changed before we could start construction.''

The Engineer-in-Chief added: ``Our work is made difficult by the fact that records of underground services are non-existent. It is only after we start excavation that we discover sewer lines, water lines and even electricity cables, which even the department concerned does not know about. ``Till these lines are shifted, work is put on hold and hence the delays.''