The Sunday Express
BANGALORE, FEBRUARY 11: In central Karnataka, on the 342.4-km stretch between Tumkur and Hubli, on the Mumbai-Chennai leg of the Golden Quadrilateral project, there is a 20-minute period when car drivers think they can make it to Hubli well under four hours.
That 20-minute reverie occurs on a 41.4-km stretch between Tumkur (60 km from Bangalore) and Sira, the only section on this stretch of the Golden Quadrilateral where the four-lane main carriageway is in place—fenced and protected on both sides by moats; pedestrian walkways are up; service roads and underpasses ready, and flowers bloom along the broad road divider.
Approved in April 2000, like the four other sections that make up the Tumkur-Hubli stretch, this 41.4-km stretch of the Golden Quadrilateral was sealed and delivered to the NHAI by contractors Larsen and Toubro a little after their November 2004 deadline, at the project cost of Rs 184 crore.
Exiting this stretch, drivers snap out of their Hubli-in-four-hours dream. The Sira-Chitradurga (66.7 km), the Chitradurga-Harihar (77 km) the Harihar-Haveri (56 km) and the Haveri-Hubli (64 km) stretches are a constant series of diversions between completed two lanes, under-construction flyovers, underpasses, bumpy roads, dust and ‘work in progress’ boards.
Deadlines have come and gone on more than two occasions but across the stretch only a little over 50 per cent of the work has been completed, making the roads a nightmare after dusk.
Take the Sira-Chitradurga patch. August 2004 was the original deadline for completion of the Rs 304-crore Asian Development Bank-funded project, being executed by a Malaysian-Indian joint venture between United Engineers of Malaysia and Essar, India. This deadline was extended to December 2005. While the main carriageway is more or less ready, the road will not be handed over to NHAI till June 2006.
The Chitradurga-Harihar stretch being implemented by the same consortium is worse. The original deadline of August 2004 was extended to December 2005, then to January 2006. Now the next deadline is June 2006. ‘‘We don’t expect completion at least till 2008,’’ says one worker.
The original estimated cost of Rs 318 crore has now risen over Rs 418 crore, says a representative of ICT Ltd, the supervisory consultants for the stretch.
‘‘The main carriageway will be ready by June 2006. There have been several hurdles. There have been several unforeseen changes incorporated. The fault lies with various people from local villagers, the NHAI to the contractor,’’ says the ICT official.
In one village along the highway, people refused to part with their land saying they had not been compensated when the original National Highway was built 20 years ago.
At another village, people produced the plan of a flyover in Japan and said an underpass would block airflow to the village.
In late 2004, the infrastructure and monitoring division of the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation had squarely blamed the contractors for the poor progress (33 per cent then).
Like the Chitradurga-Harihar stretch, the Rs 204-crore Harihar-Haveri leg, also being implemented by UEM-Essar, has progressed painfully resulting in similar cost escalations.
With as many as 32 villages situated close to the highway between Chitradurga and Haveri, the contractors have reportedly had to change plans at as many as 52 points on this stretch.
The Haveri-Hubli stretch is slightly better off with at least two-way lanes functional along the entire route. But the section remains treacherous at night as evident from the sight of three major accidents involving trucks—two involving contractors’ trucks.
There are also two key bypasses on this Tumkur-Hubli stretch that are progressing at a snail’s pace.
The 13-km Tumkur bypass, work on which began in December 2001, was to have been completed by December 2003. The deadline was extended to February 2006. But only 60 per cent of work has been done and completion could well take another year.
The 18-km Chitradurga bypass, which is being constructed—like the Tumkur bypass—by contractors A L Sudershan and Co, since March 2002 has a similar story. Meant originally to have been completed bu August 2004, the project has received a new deadline of January 2006. Only 50 per cent of work has been done so far
No comments:
Post a Comment