Delhi to get Rs 700 crore from Centre for beautification, construction and maintenance of roads

Nitin Gadkari, the Union Minister for Road Transport and Highways, and Lt. Governor (L-G) of Delhi V.K. Saxena met, and the former decided to give Delhi Rs 700 crore from the central road budget for the building, mending, maintaining, and beautifying of roads in the national capital. The Public Works Department, the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD), and other road-owning organisations in Delhi stand to benefit greatly from this windfall gain, which would significantly improve the capital's road network.

Gadkari also directed NHAI to bear the cost of repair, refurbishing and beautification of all its roads in the city, as well as bear the cost being incurred in the upgradation of the stretch of road between Mahipalpur (IGI airport) and Dhaula Kuan, which is being undertaken in a mission mode under the direct supervision of the L-G, said a source on Wednesday.

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On a request by the L-G that the NHAI lifts and uses the inert gathered at the three landfill sites in Delhi, over and above the 20 lakh tonne that it had already committed to using, the Union Minister directed the NHAI to lift and use the entire inert for its road construction activities.

Gadkari emphasised that even though this would result in increased cartage (transportation cost) for the NHAI, it would help the national capital flatten the garbage mountains that had come up in the city over decades.

The meeting, which was called for the resolution of issues pertaining to NHAI projects like UER-II, Dwarka Expressway, Delhi-Dehradun Highway and parallel flyover at Vasant Kunj Sector C-D, had senior officials from both sides headed by Gadkari and L-G Saxena.

According to the source, it was informed in the meeting that the pending issues with regards to the above-mentioned like tree cutting, translocation permissions, allotment of land, handing over of possession of allotted land, removal of garbage collection point, shifting of power transmission line on the part of the Delhi Government, Delhi Development Authority and the MCD had already been completed.

These issues pending for a long had been sorted with active steering by the L-G over the last few months, the last being clearing proposals for tree translocation that was done on December 19, the source said, adding that it has cleared the bottlenecks in the implementation of the critical NHAI projects.

With inputs from IANS