Two yrs on, Rs 68-cr four-laning link road project hangs fire in Faridabad

The work on the four-laning of the main link road between the city and Kundli–Ghaziabad-Palwal (KGP) Expressway is going on at a sluggish pace, with commuters being at the receiving end. The project, which is worth Rs 68 crore, is unlikely to be completed within this year.

According to sources in the district administration, as the work on the 12-km-long passage — connecting Ballabhgarh and Maujpur village located adjacent to the expressway on the eastern fringe of the district — was launched in mid-2022, the pace of the construction has been riddled by various factors, including the suspension of work on account of payment, release of funds, rainy season, negligence on part of the contracting agency and the issue of the encroachments.

The project, undertaken by the Haryana State Roads and Bridges Development Corporation (HSRBDC) — an enterprise of the state government, envisaged to improve the connectivity between the city and expressway by widening the two-lane road to four-laned to curtail the hurdles faced in commuting on this passage.

“The poor pace of work and half-built condition of the road has led to immense problems in commuting as a major portion of the stretch has neither been widened nor metalled,” says Varun Sheokand, a resident. He said the single-laned road and potholes on the unmetalled stretch posed a risk of accidents or led to vehicle breakdown due to uneven patches, which often got waterlogged.

“With hardly any progress in the past few months, a major portion of the stretch, which passes close to residential areas of the villages lined on it, makes the commuters suffer,” says Dheeraj Yadav, a resident of Mirzapur village. Though the road is to be primarily widened between Chandawali and Maujpur villages, the problem remains acute near Machhgar village due to the damaged patches and half-built road.

“The expressway, which was expected to provide an alternative and easy route for movement of trucks and heavy vehicles, has perhaps failed to serve the purpose due to poor condition of this passage,” says Jaswant Yadav, a resident of Chandawali village. He said many commuters who wanted to use the expressway preferred to avoid it in the wake of safety-related issues on the road.

HSRBDC Executive Engineer Rahul Singh said the work on this road had been hurdled mainly by the issues of encroachments on both sides of the passage. He said as 70 per cent of the work had been over, it was expected to be ready by December end this year, which was the deadline.