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NHAI wants DC to intervene for work to start in the city
Gurugram:
Gurugram:
With a host of construction projects in limbo owing to the nationwide lockdown, the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) on Tuesday asked that the district administration expedite permissions to allow contractors to resume pending work.
In a letter to Gurugram deputy commissioner (DC) Amit Khatri, NHAI Gurugram project director Ashok Sharma asked that applications by contractors made on the state’s Saral portal be accepted at the earliest. A senior highways authority official said contractors have made applications for work passes on the Saral portal over the last two days, but are still awaiting their arrival.
“Government of Haryana, revenue and disaster management department has also directed construction projects be allowed with ministry of home affairs guidelines, operations shall be allowed with 50% of the total work force,” the letter read.
Among the projects pending are the Ambience Mall underpass, Shankar Chowk elevated U-turn, Khandsa foot-overbridge, Badshahpur-Sohna road.
On April 20, Haryana’s chief secretary Keshni Anand Arora had said that some industries not in containment zones can resume operations while following the guidelines issued by the Centre. She said owners of industries and factories will have to get permission to operate from the government through the Saral portal, only after which would passes be issued to labourers and other employees working there.
So far, the district administration has identified six containment zones in Gurugram. The city has seen 41 cases of Covid-19, and no deaths till now.
HT had earlier reported that at least 25 industrial units and companies in the district would be allowed to resume operations this week, and were likely to get approvals for the same by Wednesday morning.
The development after the Haryana government on Sunday released a standard operating procedure (SOP) for reopening industrial units amid the nationwide lockdown, in a bid to allow economic activities to return to normal. No NHAI contractor has been allowed to start work till yet.
A few NHAI contractors had been stopped by Gurugram police when they resumed work at Sohna road on Monday, as officers said the contractors didn’t have permission to work during the lockdown. In the letter, Sharma wrote that contractors and concessionaires complained that local law enforcement did not allow them construction work in the city.
“They have reported that the requisite permission has been applied, which needs to be expedited. Some of the staff of our independent engineer have also reported that permission for their movement pass has been rejected by the Gurgaon administration. For want of permission from the Gurgaon administration none of the projects of NHAI could resume till date ,” read the letter, a copy of which is with HT.
When asked about the matter, Khatri said all applications sent by NHAI contractors are being scrutinised. “I cannot comment on when they will be issued, but we are processing them as per their necessity,” he said. Administration officials said because most NHAI contractors have made provisions for labourers to live near construction sites, the issuance of work passes should not be an issue.
In a letter written to the DC earlier this month, an NHAI contractor — Oriental Structural Engineers Pvt Ltd, which is constructing a five-kilometre elevated stretch on the Badshahpur-Sohna Road said the pause in construction could put commuters in danger. The contractor in its letter to the DC said that a span (girder on the pillar) is hanging and needs to be lowered immediately. The contractor is still waiting for the construction pass to be given for this pillar to be fixed.
