Centre to provide Delhi Rs 700 cr for construction, beautification of roads

The Centre has decided to provide Delhi with Rs 700 cr out of a fund for construction, repair, maintenance and beautification of roads in the national capital, officials said on Wednesday.

The decision was taken during a meeting between Union Minister for Road Transport & Highways Nitin Gadkari and Delhi Lt Governor V K Saxena, according to a statement issued by the Raj Niwas.

It was decided that Delhi will be provided with Rs 700 cr out of the Central Road Fund (CRF) for construction, repair, maintenance and beautification of roads in the national capital, it said.

"This windfall gain to road owning agencies in Delhi like the PWD and MCD, etc., will go a long way in makeover of road infrastructure in the capital. Apart form this, the Union minister also directed the NHAI to bear the cost of repair, refurbishing and beautification of all its roads in the city, as also 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 direct supervision of the LG," the statement said.

The Delhi LG thanked the minister for this gesture, it added.

On a request by the LG that the NHAI lift and use the inert gathered at the three landfill sites in Delhi, over and above the 20 lakh tonne that it had already committed to use, the Union minister has directed the NHAI to lift and use the entire inert for its road construction activities, it said.

The minister underlined that despite the fact that this would result in increased cartage (transportation cost) for the NHAI, it will help the national capital flatten the garbage mountains that have come up in the city over decades, the statement said.

The meeting, which was called for resolution of issues pertaining to NHAI projects like Urban Extension Road-II, Dwarka Expressway, Delhi-Dehradun Highway and parallel flyover at Vasant Kunj Sector C-D, was also attended by senior officials from both sides, it added.

It was informed in the meeting that the hitherto relevant pending issues, 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 part of Delhi government or DDA or MCD had already been completed, the Raj Niwas said.

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