Highway hurdle delays Metro Pink Line

A series of hurdles in the ongoing construction on the Delhi Metro’s 59-km Pink Line has led to almost a year’s delay in completion of the project. One of the major obstacles is reported at the elevated alignment of the corridor that passes over the National Highway 24 at two locations, between Vinod Nagar and Vinod Nagar East and IP Extension and the Vinod Nagar Metro depot.

The DMRC began work on these sections after obtaining necessary clearance from the Union ministry of road transport and highways in March 2013. In June 2014, the National Highways Authority of India informed the DMRC that there should not be any Metro pier within the 90 metres of Right of Way of National Highway 24, since the stretch was now a part of the Meerut Expressway project.

Later, in September 2014, a decision was taken in a meeting between the DMRC and the NHAI to accommodate the former’s proposal. In the further meetings, the issue of providing adequate vertical clearance above the highways was discussed between the two organisations and an agreement was reached with making some modifications in the project.

After the meeting, the construction resumed with the permission of the Union ministry of road transport and highways. But the project hit another roadblock in January 2015 when the NHAI asked the DMRC to stop work and said the horizontal location of the piers on NH-24 was infringing its proposed carriageway.

Later in June 2015, the Union road ministry held a meeting with various organisations to find a solution. After the meeting, the DMRC came up with a fresh proposal to place the Metro piers as per requirements given by the NHAI at both the locations in question. After obtaining all the necessary clearances, the DMRC resumed the work at the two locations in March 2016. “The elevated alignment of the corridor passes over the National Highway 24 towards Ghaziabad in two locations — between Vinod Nagar and Vinod Nagar East and between IP Extension and the Vinod Nagar Metro depot. As per the original plan, Piers 114, 115 and 116 passed over NH-24 (near petrol pump towards Ghaziabad). While Pier-115 was on the median of the highway, Piers 114 and 116 were on either side of the NH-24,” a DMRC official told this newspaper.

“As per the revised plan, both Piers 114 and 116 on either side of NH-24 were dismantled. However, Pier 115 could be retained. The 11 segments erected were also dismantled. Since it was not possible to erect another pier near Pier 114, because the new pier would have fallen within the pile foundation area of the old pier, a decision was taken to provide a portal instead. Currently, the piling work for the portal is in progress,” said the official.