Riots scare labourers away, two flyovers in north-east Delhi may be delayed

New Delhi: Two of the Aam Aadmi Party government’s major infrastructure projects in north-east Delhi -- a six-lane flyover and a two-lane single flyover-- have hit

New Delhi: Two of the Aam Aadmi Party government’s major infrastructure projects in north-east Delhi -- a six-lane flyover and a two-lane single flyover-- have hit a hurdle due to the recent communal riots in the region. A majority of the migrant labourers employed in the construction of these two projects have fled to their villages fearing attacks. They are yet to return despite police and district administration’s claims that the situation is back to normal, said officials associated with the two projects.

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The projects, which are coming up in Shastri Park and Seelampur, on the GT Road that connects ISBT Kashmere Gate and Ghaziabad, were scheduled to be completed by August this year. However, due to persistent delays, it is likely to miss the deadline. The project is being executed by Delhi government’s Public Works Department (PWD). These flyovers aim to end traffic bottlenecks in congested east and north-east Delhi areas such as Shahdara, Welcome, Shastri Park, Kashmere Gate, Seelampur and Kajoori Khas.

Under the first project, the Public Works Department (PWD) would construct a 700m long six lane flyover with a double carriageway at Shastri Park junction. The width of each carriageway of the Shastri Park flyover will be 10.5metres. The flyover will have two loops; one coming from Khajuri Chowk and turning towards Kashmiri Gate and the second one coming from Gandhi Nagar and turning towards Shahdara.

The second project will be 1.2 km long two-lane, one-way flyover which will be constructed parallel to the existing one-way flyover at Seelampur crossing. The width of each carriageway on the Seelampur flyover will be 7 metres.

The contractors engaged in the projects hire labourers mostly from localities in the district such as Jafrabad, Seelampur, Gokalpuri, Karawal Nagar, Ghonda, Pushta Road, etc, most of which were affected by violence.

According to PWD officials, the pace of the construction has now been slowed down to a large extent as during riots the work was completely shut and even when the situation has improved they are finding it difficult to get the workforce.

The festival of Holi, which is falling on Tuesday, has further trimmed the chances of availability of workers as the migrant labourers, who are not living in riot hit areas, have gone to their home towns and villages to celebrate the festival.

An official engaged with the construction of these flyovers said that the project had witnessed a number of roadblocks in last few months. He said earlier in November-December due to spike in pollution the work remained suspended for around a month and then for over a week it was stopped due to communal violence in north-east district, and now due to Holi.

“During riots labourers have fled the site and many of them, who used to live in riot-hit areas, have returned to their native places. And now due to the festival of Holi, a large chunk of workers have gone to their villages, further depleting the workforce. All these reasons have tremendously slowed down the pace of work,” the official said.

A contractor, who supplies workforce at the sites, said many labourers who have left for their native places during riots are not willing to return due to the festival of Holi.

“There is shortage of labourers due to which work has been delayed. At present, we have nearly 100 labourers working at Seelampur flyover construction site while the strength should be around 400. Similarly, only 150-200 labourers are currently engaged in Shastri Park project while we need at least 500 workers for that site,” the contractor said on the condition of anonymity.

The construction work on these flyovers was started in February last year. The AAP, in its manifesto for the Delhi assembly elections 2020, had said that the construction of these flyovers will be expedited and completed within six months after the party was re-elected to power.

In his budget speech last year, finance minister Manish Sisodia had said that the construction of flyovers at Shastri Park intersection and Seelampur will be completed in 18 months by August 2020 at a cost of Rs 303.31 crore.

A senior PWD official said, “We do not want any further delay and are making all possible efforts to streamline the problem. We are trying to get workforce from other nearby construction sites so that the work can be expedited.”

S Velmurugan, senior principal scientist, traffic engineering and safety division, Central Road Research Institute (CRRI), said that it is one of the important infrastructure projects of the city so the authorities should have an alternate plan to deal with such crisis.

“The stretch between Kashmere Gate ISBT and Welcome witnesses heavy traffic jams and these flyovers will streamline the bottlenecks on the stretch so such a project should not be delayed anymore,” he said.