Residents halt work on elevated road on Dwarka Expressway

Residents of New Palam Vihar on Thursday halted the ongoing construction of an elevated road on Northern Peripheral Road (popularly known as the Dwarka Expressway) in protest against a faulty curved alignment of a part of the road near Sector 109/110.

Residents of New Palam Vihar on Thursday halted the ongoing construction of an elevated road on Northern Peripheral Road (popularly known as the Dwarka Expressway) in protest against a faulty curved alignment of a part of the road near Sector 109/110.

The tussle between residents and NHAI began in July 2018, when HSVP constructed a road near Sector 109/110 at New Palam Vihar with a curved centre in the 90-metre motorable road, in contravention of the original drawing of the road.(Picture for representation)

Rakesh Rana, resident of New Palam Vihar, said, “Based on our complaints, the Haryana Sahari Vikas Pradhikaran(HSVP) on January 22 had written to the National Highways Authority of India(NHAI), asking the agency to take fresh measurements of the centre to correct the faulty curve, before it starts digging for pillars in the portion. On Wednesday, we spotted the NHAI contractor dumping digging machines at the site, while on Thursday, they started digging the area. We asked the workers to measure the road in front of us. We found that the curve has still not been made completely straight. As such, we decided not to allow even an inch of deviation in the alignment.”

The tussle between the residents and the NHAI began in July 2018, when the HSVP constructed a road near Sector 109/110 at New Palam Vihar with a curved centre in the 90-metre motorable road, in contravention of the original drawing of the road, and handed it over to the NHAI to start construction for a proposed elevated road on the NPR.

The width of NPR is 150 metres that includes a 30-metre-wide space for service utilities on both sides and a 90-metre-wide motorable road at the centre. The residents accused the HSVP of creating a curve intentionally to provide more space on one side for construction of a commercial establishment.

Udeep Singhal, project director (Dwarka Expressway), NHAI, said, “We corrected the drawing as per the HSVP letter. However, there still may be little deviation that we could easily correct at a later stage. For this, the residents should not hamper the ongoing work.”

Amit Khatri, deputy commissioner (DC), Gurugram, said, “I am looking into the matter to resolve the issue at the earliest.”

The Dwarka Expressway extends from Kherki Daula toll plaza in Gurugram to NH-8 near Shiv Murti near Mahipalpur in New Delhi, over 29 kms. In Gurugram, it is 18 km-long from the Delhi-Gurugram border to the Kherki Daula toll plaza, of which 1.5 kms fall in the New Palam Vihar area. The HSVP built the 16.5-km road in 2016. However, a 1.5-km portion in New Palam Vihar was under litigation till June 2018, when the Punjab and Haryana High Court asked the HSVP to compensate NPR oustees, before demolishing their houses falling in the alignment.

The NHAI has built the Dwarka Expressway in different segments — a five-km stretch from Shiv Murti to Dwarka underpass, a 4.5-km stretch from Dwarka underpass to the Haryana border, a 10.2-km stretch from the Haryana border to Basai rail overbridge and a 8.7-km stretch from Basai rail overbridge to NH-8 up to the Southern Peripheral Road (SPR).