Ganga Pathway undergoes design change yet again, project cost swells
The ambitious Loknayak Ganga Pathway, an elevated bypass to the city through the southern bank of the river Ganga, will undergo another design modification in the wake of changing course of the river near Patna City. Now, another 2.90km stretch from Dharmshala to Deedarganj of the 20.5km long four-lane expressway, connecting Digha in the west to National Highway 31 in Patna City in east, will be built on an elevated structure, said an officer of BSRDC.
PATNA: The ambitious Loknayak Ganga Pathway, an elevated bypass to the city through the southern bank of the river Ganga, will undergo another design modification in the wake of changing course of the river near Patna City. Now, another 2.90km stretch from Dharmshala to Deedarganj of the 20.5km long four-lane expressway, connecting Digha in the west to National Highway 31 in Patna City in east, will be built on an elevated structure, said an officer of Bihar State Road Development Corporation (BSRDC).
After the revision in design, the Ganga Path will run through 14.40km elevated driveway and 6.10km at grade build up.
BSRDC chief general manager Sanjay Kumar said that Dharmshala-Deedarganj stretch of Ganga driveway would be built on elevated mode instead of grade level, as was earlier proposed. “The design has to be modified in consultation with experts of IIT-Roorkee in view of the change in direction of the current over the last couple of years,” Kumar said.
As a result, the cost of the project would escalate to ₹3,831 crore, ₹441 crore more than the previous estimate. “The BSRCD is now scruitinising the bid documents to offer work order to a qualified construction firm, as the existing contractor, Navayuga Engineering Company Limited (NECL), refused to carry on with the work as per the previous estimate after a change in the design,” said the officer.
Officials said that the project, the work on which was launched in 2013 at an initial estimate of ₹2,234.46 crore, might jump the deferred deadline once again. At the initial stage of design, the driveway project was to be constructed at grade level, while the rest 11.50km was supposed to be built in elevated mode. Originally conceived in 2007 to reduce the traffic load on the already congested Ashok Rajpath, the project had to be shelved for some time owing to the construction firms’ reluctance to the stipulated terms and conditions.
The new communication infrastructure on its completion would drastically cut down travel time from Digha to Deedarganj and also provide smooth bypass to the capital city from east to west or vice versa for the travellers. Vehicles coming from AIIMS, Patna, or Bihta or those from Chapra via JP Setu will have easy access to the Patna Medical College and Hospital (PMCH) or Patna City or get on to the NH-30 or connect to the upcoming six-lane road bridge on river Ganga from Kacchi Dargah in Patna to Bidupur in Vaishali district.
The BSRDC CGM said that part of the project, from Digha to AN Sinha Institute, would be opened for vehicular movement by May and up to PMCH by June this year. “We have set a revised deadline to operationalize the project up to Naujarghat by the end of this year, while the entire project will be opened for vehicular movement by March 2024,” added Kumar.
