Fate of Haridwar-Dehradun road project hangs in balance

Tribune News Service

Haridwar/Dehradun, April 25

With the Union Road Transport and Highways Ministry mulling stringent action and even termination of projects of those who are delaying these, the fate of the Haridwar-Dehradun National Highway road project, which was scheduled to get completed by June 2016, is uncertain.

The fourlane project in Uttarakhand and one each in Haryana and Chhattisgarh are on the radar of the ministry owing to laxity and diversion of funds from these projects by the firm.

Era Infra Engineering has been accused of failing to invest the promised fund for the project which is being built on the Public-Private Partnership mode.

The work began on this road on November 1, 2011, and was scheduled to get completed in June 2015 at Rs 478 crore. But almost a year has passed and the construction on this stretch at many points is still incomplete. Several bottlenecks have affected the pace of this project which was put on a priority last year by the Union Road, Transport and Highways Ministry and the Uttarkahand Government too in view of Ardh Kumbh fair.

But now, Ardh Kumbh is over and still the fourlane work has not been completed. The escalation of the project cost is another aspect which is the cause of delay.

Last year the diversion of funds for this project to other projects was done by the developer, which stalled the work for almost 9-10 months.

The company diverted the quarrying material, allowed by the administration for highway construction, for commercial use as a result of which it was disallowed to operate mini quarrying plant on the Ganga riverbed by the Bairagi camp.

NHAI officials said three projects, including the Haridwar-Dehradun fourlane project, had been floated by the ministry on various grounds, but they had no specific details in this regard yet.

Though, they added that a meeting had been called on between the NHAI, the district administration and the firm this month to look into the allegations and excuses being given by the latter.

Talking to TNS, Haridwar District Magistrate Harbans Singh Chugh said Era company officials had blamed it on lack of availability of raw material, which was not right as the administration had given them permission to purchase it.

“Joint Magistrate, Roorkee, Mangesh Ghildiyal has been appointed nodal officer as Ardh Kumbh was going on on the city periphery so quarrying permission couldn’t be given to the company in the city area. But, in Roorkee, we had given permission but asked them to ensure payment of due royalty and maintaining transparency in this aspect,” he said.

The DM added that till date no official communique had been received.

Notably, in 2013 too, the construction of this highway was affected as more than 300 engineers, employees and contractual workers of a private construction company went on a strike over delay in salary payment.

The extension work on the fourlane of NH-58 from Muzaffarnagar to Haridwar is ongoing, besides construction of 12 other bridges, to facilitate travel from the national capital to Dehradun.

On this issue, city legislator Madan Kaushik said he was seeking details from the Union Ministry, NHAI, Era company and district administrative officials and would take up the matter with Haridwar parliamentarian Dr Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank also.

“Any further delay of this project will only add to the woes of the people as well as millions of pilgrims that come to Haridwar, Dehradun, Mussoorie and other Garhwal towns. If need be, another firm should be given contract as this stretch is vital considering the Maha Kumbh fair which is just five years away,” said Kaushik.