Noida may act against engineers, IIT-Delhi for delay in Bhangel road project

The construction of 5.5km Bhangel elevated road began in 2020 but has been plagued by delays, resulting in traffic congestion on Dadri road and significant inconvenience to daily commuters and residents in the vicinity

Noida authority chief executive officer Lokesh M has decided to act against the engineers, and consultants from the Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi, for the delay in the Bhangel elevated road project, and also against the chief finance and account officer, whose alleged negligence led to a con man transferring out ₹3.9 crore from the authority’s account using fake documents.

At least 70% work on this project is over but it will still fail to meet the deadline of 2023-end owing to multiple reasons, including slow pace of work and design changes. (Representative Image)

The construction of 5.5km Bhangel elevated road began in 2020 but has been plagued by delays, resulting in traffic congestion on Dadri road and significant inconvenience to daily commuters and residents in the vicinity.

At least 70% work on this project is over but it will still fail to meet the deadline of 2023-end owing to multiple reasons, including slow pace of work and design changes.

The work was recently halted as the budget of this project, earlier estimated at ₹468 crore, was proposed to be increased by another ₹200 crore citing a price hike in steel and other construction material.

According to construction company, earlier, there was a requirement of 20,000 tonnes steel for the elevated road and now after changes in the design, it needs 32,000 tonnes of steel to complete the work.

“We had formed a committee that discussed the issues on Thursday and formed an opinion that the authority’s engineers responsible for supervision of this elevated road work had not done their job properly. Since the past two years, they kept sending letters to the agency undertaking construction without taking timely decisions. If the budget had to be revised, then it should have been approved earlier and work should not have suffered nor the project delayed for so long. Therefore, we will take action against the engineers responsible. Also, we will write to IIT-Delhi, which was engaged for vetting of the project. They should have flagged the errors earlier,” said Lokesh M.

The authority will put forth the proposal for action in the upcoming board meeting on August 13, said the CEO.

Neither the engineers nor the IIT consultants could be reached for comment on the matter.

Apart from that, Lokesh M said action will also be taken against the chief finance and account officer whose negligence led to a con man duping the authority of ₹3.9 crore. He allegedly used a fake identity card to transfer the amount from the authority’s bank account with Bank of India into his accounts. Earlier, Lokesh M had issued a show-cause notice to this official, seeking his explanation.

“He submitted his reply but we are of the view that he commissioned an error by not going personally to open the bank account and sending a bike messenger instead with crucial documents, which was intercepted by the fraudsters who submitted forged papers in its stead to the bank. We will recommend an action against the official in the upcoming board meeting,” said Lokesh M.