Crying shame: Projects that could have helped cash-strapped MCDs gather dust

While the BJP ruled-MCDs are crying for lack of funds to pay the salaries of its employees, at the same time their mismanagement and corruption to host the projects which turned to be cropper or wasteful and cost them more than Rs 1,000 crore loss over the years has exposed their incapability to run these Corporations.

The data revealed the shocking truth that the MCDs have failed to generate even a single penny from these projects and none of these projects are operational.

As per the report, the three MCDs are splurging as much as Rs 65 crore over the maintenance of their “defunct” websites. In detail, the agencies spend Rs 12 crore annually to maintain the website that has gone up to a whopping Rs 65 crore in the last four years. 

According to an RTI response, the monthly expense for maintenance of e-government project is Rs 1 crore per month which goes up to Rs 12 crore annually. The three MCDs have spent a total amount of Rs 65 crore on e-government project till now. 

Eighteen years and still going, Rani Jhansi Grade Separator project worth Rs 225 is yet to be a reality. The project was supposed to cost Rs 70 crore when it was first proposed in 1998 but it met with certain hurdles due to demolition in areas of Azad Market, Tyre Market and Modal Basti. The 1.6-km flyover, from Filmistaan Cinema to near St Stephen’s Hospital, was meant to ease traffic on Rani Jhansi Road, but due to the delay in construction, the project has ended up making traffic worse. 

If that was not enough, a whopping Rs 225 crore was spent on constructing a multi-level parking facility in the posh Model Town area. The project has gone down the drain as the facility has failed to serve its purpose due to its faulty design. The parking was supposed to accommodate 110 cars and two-wheelers each. North Delhi Municipal Corporation had inaugurated the ambitious three-storeyed parking project to ease parking woes in Model Town area, but the entry point to the parking is so narrow that vehicle just cannot enter and hence the very purpose of parking has been defeated.

Similarly, South Delhi Municipal Corporation’s (SDMC) project to come up with a multi-level parking in Hauz Khas area met with the same fate. The three-strorey parking lot was built at a cost of Rs 30 crore excluding the cost of land which is around Rs 200 crore. The area which was supposed to accommodate more than 360 cars at the same time failed due to its same faulty design. These projects failed to generate any money as it could never become operational due to its bad designs.

The list doesn’t end here. The Rs 209 crore Bijwasan Road project is also biting dust. Under SDMC, the project was supposed to come up by 2012 but has failed to bear any fruit. 

The project includes Najafgarh-Bijwasan Road which was one of the locations under an umbrella programme that included the construction of rail overbridge (RoB) at Sultanpuri railway crossing, remodelling and covering of Madipur drain, remodelling and covering of Ramesh Nagar drain and construction of RoB at Bijwasan Railway crossing. In a strange case, a consultant firm — hired for construction of the Rs 53 crore Bijwasan Road project during the 2010 Commonwealth Games — had unlawfully turned out to be the contractor under a joint venture for the same project due to which the project is in ruins.