Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, Jan 13: The work on much needed flyover between Bikram Chowk and Government Women College, Gandhi Nagar is unlikely to start before March as the Asian Development Bank (ADB) has yet not completed the technical evaluation of the project. In the meantime, Minister for Revenue, Relief and Rehabilitation, Raman Bhalla has written to the Chief Minister, Omar Abdullah seeking extension of the alignment of the upcoming flyover up to Satwari crossing in the second phase for a lasting impact on the traffic scenario.
Official sources told EXCELSIOR that work on Bikram Chowk-Gandhi Nagar College flyover, which was poised to start early this month, has now been stretched till February ending as the Asian Development Bank (ADB) has not conveyed the result of technical evaluation of the project to the J&K Economic Reconstruction Agency (ERA) till date.
“On the receipt of report of technical evaluation of the project, the exercise towards financial evaluation would begin and all this indicates that there are remote chances of construction of flyover taking off before ending February”, sources said while disclosing that as per the earlier schedule the J&K ERA was expected to receive the technical evaluation result from the Asian Development Bank in the last week of December 2012.
“As per the clause in the contract, 38 days time-frame will have to be given to the company to be selected for the execution of task, so that it can mobilize men and machinery. This is also the reason to believe that the work on the project is unlikely to begin before March”, sources said.
Stating that the project consists of two components— eight lanning of road from Bikram Chowk to Gandhi Nagar College and construction of flyover, sources said, “J&K ERA has almost completed the task that falls in its domain like shifting of boundary wall of Kala Kendra and felling of trees etc”, adding “the new boundary wall of Government College for Women is in the final stages of completion and thereafter the existing wall would be demolished”.
Meanwhile, Minister for Revenue, Relief and Rehabilitation, Raman Bhalla has written to the Chief Minister, Omar Abdullah seeking extension of the flyover from Gandhi Nagar College up to Satwari Chowk in order to achieve the real objective of the project.
“There is no doubt that the upcoming express way corridor (flyover) from Bikram Chowk to the Government Women College, Gandhi Nagar will decongest the traffic bottleneck at Bikram Chowk by providing an alternate route but it will not take the load off the entire stretch from Bikram Chowk to Satwari, which is one of the busiest road stretches in the State”, reads the Revenue Minister’s letter addressed to Chief Minister.
“The envisaged thinning of congestion at Bikram Chowk will be at the expense of traffic overcrowding around the GCW point. This corridor would be more effective if its scope is extended up to Satwari intersection. Moreover, Bikram Chowk-Satwari flyover would facilitate in diverting the entire traffic for Akhnoor and Bhagwati Nagar via upcoming 4th bridge over river Tawi”, the letter reads.
The communication further reads: “For a lasting impact on the traffic order in the city, it is imperative that we train our eyes on advancing the alignment of the upcoming flyover up to Satwari crossing. No doubt it would be difficult to consider the extension of flyover at this juncture but we should approach the relevant Ministry and Asian Development Bank for extending the arm of the corridor up to Satwari in the second phase. Without this we would be putting in place only an expedient and not a long term response to our traffic woes”.
When contacted, CEO ERA, Saurabh Bhagat confirmed that ADB has yet not conveyed the result of technical evaluation of the project, adding “the same is expected shortly”. As far as Revenue Minister’s point, he said, “the suggestion is viable. The State Government can extend any project whenever it feels the importance of the same”.
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