Delhi’s Barapullah phase 3 set for further delays

The unprecedented flooding of the Yamuna in July, sparked by excess rain in Delhi and northern states further upstream, will likely lead to further delay in the third phase of the Barapullah elevated road project, officials aware of the matter said on Wednesday.

As part of the third phase of the project, Mayur Vihar will be connected to Sarai Kale Khan via a 3.5km flyover, which will improve connectivity between east, south, and New Delhi and decongest Nizamuddin Bridge, Bhairon Marg, and Ashram Chowk on Ring Road.

The project, which began in April 2015, was expected to be completed by October 2017 but was initially delayed due to land acquisition issues, and was later delayed due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

Now, the officials said, the flooding of the Yamuna means the project will likely miss its revised deadline of October 2024.

One official from the Public Works Department, who declined to be named, said work on two sections of the bridge on the floodplains of the Yamuna was suspended after the river crossed its danger mark of 205.33m on July 9.

“We were constructing the lower pylons of the bridge by constructing wells when the river levels started rising… We are looking at a further delay of minimum four to five months and the project is unlikely to be completed even in 2024,” the official said.

Over the last week, the water level of the river has been fluctuating around the danger mark, and was 204.6m at 10pm on August 6.

“The water level has fluctuated over the week, and the construction site is still in no condition to carry out any work. The wells have to be desilted and the whole site will have to be dried up to restore it to pre-July state,” the official said.

To be sure, land acquisition issues still plague the project — a 2-acre patch of land still is in dispute, the official said.

The delays have also led to significant cost escalations. The PWD July project report states that the initial tender amount for the project was ₹964 crore while payments worth ₹1,414.93 crore have been released till July 2023.

Dr S Velmurugan, chief scientist and head of the traffic engineering and safety division of Central Road Research Institute (CRRI), said unprecedented climatic events such as the flooding in Delhi are increasingly becoming the norm across the world. “Beijing has an excellent drainage system, but that city too has been overwhelmed. While nothing can be done about this delay (in the Barapullah project), the PWD should incorporate such events in future projects by factoring in climate change,” he said.