No work done on western expressway so far, Haryana govt tells SC - Times of India

NEW DELHI: After claiming for months that 68% of work had been done on the 135-km Peripheral Expressway Highway, meant to provide an alternative route to trucks and to prevent them from passing through the national capital, the Haryana government on Friday informed the Supreme Court that no substantial construction had taken place on the project.

Expressing concern over delay in the project, a bench headed by Chief Justice H L Dattu set a deadline of April to start construction on the expressway. It directed the government to complete re-tendering of the project within two months.

Solicitor general Ranjit Kumar, appearing for the state, submitted that the earlier claim of 68% work done was wrong and no road was constructed so far and the new government has decided to re-tender the project.

The bench, also comprising Justices Arun Mishra and Adarsh Kumar Goel, expressed surprise on the statement by the SG who, during the last heating on January 16, had said that 68% work was done on the project.

"You have made a wonderful statement... We see today that nothing was being done. Where were your engineers," the bench asked. It, however, granted more time to the government but made it clear that there should be no further delay and asked it to come out with a calendar for completion of different stages of the project.

Advocate A D N Rao, appearing for the court-appointed Environmental Pollution and Control Authority (EPCA), also questioned the delay, saying the timeline kept extending from 2005 to 2008 to 2012 to 2014 and now 2016.

The apex court had in 2005 directed construction of Eastern and Western Peripheral Expressways to decongest Delhi roads within three years.

The two expressways — each about 135 km long — were planned in 2006 to form a ring road outside Delhi for channeling non-Delhi bound traffic bypassing the national capital. But the project got delayed due to various reasons and the apex court finally fixed a deadline of 2016 for Eastern Expressway and 2018 for Western Expressway.

On the last hearing on January 16, NHAI, which is constructing Eastern Expressway, submitted that bidding process for the project would be finalized within two weeks and commencement of work on the project would take at least six months. The SG had said 68% of work was done on the Western Expressway.

Eastern Peripheral Expressway aims to provide signal-free connectivity between Ghaziabad, Faridabad, Gautam Budh Nagar (Greater Noida) and Palwal while Western Expressway will connect Kundli to Palwal via Manesar in Haryana.

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