Dwarka Eway: Interchange at Shiv Murti may get delayed as MCEPL red flags ‘competing road’

A loop interchange proposed to be built at Shiv Murti has hit a road block as the Delhi-Gurgaon Expressway concessionaire has refused to give ‘no-objection certificate’

A loop interchange proposed to be built at Shiv Murti has hit a road block as the Delhi-Gurgaon Expressway concessionaire has refused to give ‘no-objection certificate’ (NOC) to the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) to conduct a survey of the area for the project.

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The loop interchange, which will connect the Delhi-Gurgaon Expressway with south of Delhi and Dwarka, is part of Package 1 of the Dwarka Expressway, also called the Northern Peripheral Road (NPR). The alignment of the NPR starts from Shiv Murti and ends at Kherki Daula near the CPR-SPR intersection.

Officials of the Millennium City Expressway Private Limited (MCEPL) said that since the loop interchange will touch NH-48, it will become a competing road for their traffic. They added that if the NHAI contractor proceeds with the survey without an NOC then they will take legal action.

“Without the NOC if the NHAI contractor starts work then we will seek legal recourse,” MCEPL chief executive officer S Raghuraman said. The concessionaire said that as per the agreement between MCEPL and NHAI Clause 8.1, “Competing road facility shall not be opened to traffic (sic)”. The contract is valid till 2023.

On February 10, NHAI Gurugram project director Ashok Sharma had written to the NHAI head office informing of MCEPL’s inability to give an NOC for the interchange. “The MCEPL has denied issuing NOC for the proposed construction of Dwarka Expressway for stating that the said project would be a competing road facility as per the concession agreement (sic),” read the NHAI letter, a copy of which is with the HT.

NHAI chief general manager (technical) Manoj Kumar refused to comment on the issue. However, a senior NHAI official privy to the matter said, “This is nothing new; we will sort this out.”

OS Sirohi, deputy project manager, J Kumar, Infra project, said, “We won’t face any issue in constructing the interchange as Gurugram and Dwarka office of the NHAI are involved in this project. This is a routine process which happens in almost every project. NHAI has not sought permission from MCEPL they have only informed them about it. The drawing of this project was made in 2012 where an interchange was made and it won’t go off from the project. This is nothing but a delay process by the concessionaire to get something more from NHAI.”

Last year, Dwarka Expressway project director Udeep Singhal had written a letter to NHAI (Gurugram) stating, “A multilevel interchange will have provisions of an underpass and elevated crossing near NH-8. The construction work of these interchanges will be taken up by the contractor. As the Delhi-Gurgaon Expressway is at present under concession of MCEPL it is required that intimation may be made to the concessionaire as per concessionaire agreement to extend support in all respects to NHAI for the development of interchanges. The consent of the concessionaire may also be obtained (sic),” read the letter.

In December, MCEPL had written to NHAI (Gurugram) that the Dwarka Expressway is a competing road and if the interchange comes up at Shiv Murti then the concessionaire period needs to be extended. “Dwarka Expressway, as proposed to be implemented, is a competing road facility. Even a cursory look at the map of the proposed Dwarka Expressway will show that the same will permit traffic to bypass the concessionaire’s toll plaza (Sirhaul). We regret to inform you that we are unable to issue an NOC in respect of the Dwarka Expressway and the link to NH-8 (sic),” the letter read.