During this period, the cost of the Rani Jhansi grade separator has seen an exorbitant increased. Initially, the project was estimated to be completed at a cost of Rs 122 crore. But in the past eight years, the cost has escalated to Rs 825 crore.
The 1.8-km flyover will connect Pusa Road, Upper Ridge and Rohtak Road through Filmstan Cinema, DCM Chowk, Azad market, Roshanara Road and ISBT (kashmere Gate).
Officials said only 30 per cent of the work has been completed so far. As the acquisition of land from the Railways is still stuck in a limbo and the project cost has escalated by 50 per cent, the North MCD is thinking of either realigning the project or at worst scrapping it.
North MCD’s director (Public Relations) said the project involved a lot of stakeholders, the Railways too had agreed to give some land.
In the first week of June, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government had summoned a special Assembly session on the MCDs’ mal-administration, in which a few legislators had questioned the delay in the completion of the Rani Jhansi flyover.
A key Commonwealth Games project — the grade separator was scheduled to be completed by October 2010 — but it is still pending due to problems in acquiring land and drafting a rehabilitation plan for those displaced from the area’s Tyre Market.
The MCD elections are likely to be conducted in February 2017. The BJP is in power in the municipal corporations for the past nine years.
Besides, the authorities are yet to find a suitable place to relocate people displaced from the areas such as Tyre Market, Azad Market and Model Basti. “Some land was identified at Idgah and Jakhira, but they were not found suitable to accommodating the displaced population,” said a senior official of the civic body.
The construction of grade separator at the Rani Jhansi Road affected several property owners at Tyre Market and land belonging to the Delhi Urban Shelter Improvement Board (DUSIB). The Tyre Market has been shifted to Sanjay Gandhi Transport Nagar.