Yeshwanthpur flyover to be delayed by one year

Yeshwanthpur flyover to be delayed by one year
Basavaraj Itnaal
Seven months after the deadline, the work is only half complete.


When Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagar Palike (BBMP) commissioned work on a flyover across the busy Yeshwanthpur circle, commuters within the city were as happy as the ones travelling from outside city on NH 4.

For, the bottleneck stretched the travel time on Tumkur road by a good one hour.

But as with most BBMP projects, flexible deadlines have become a bane to the commuters. The deadline for the project that started on April 27, 2006 was supposed to be completed by December 19, 2007. Seven months after the deadline, the work is only half complete. The delay in projects would cost Palike additional financial burden in terms of escalation costs. BBMP has paid more than Rs 4 crore as escalation cost in case of grade seperator near Rajajinagar entrance. However, Palike sources deny that such escalation cost would be claimed by the contractors of Yeshwanthpur flyover. ``It is a turn key project and the question of escalation cost would not arise,’’ said the sources. In case of Rajajinagar project, the delay was attributed to Palike as there was delay in land acquisition, in case of Yeshwanthpur, there was no such glitch, said an official.

But what about the loss to the city due to the delay? ``Though it is possible to impose penalty on the contractor, the Palike agreement does not have the clause,’’ said sources in BBMP engineering department. Palike has now given the contractor a revised deadline of December, 2008 - an advancement by 12 months.

In effect, the completion of the Yeshwanthpur flyover depends more on the convenience of contractors than the commuters. The Rs 19.30 crore project was envisaged as part of the comprehensive city development plan under Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM).

Yeshwanthpur flyover is designed to be a four-lane bi-directional flyover with a structural via duct of 250 metres. The ramp on Tumkur Road side would be 52.70 mtrs and on IISc side it would be 37.20 mtrs. The total length of the flyover is 419.9 mtrs. At the time of design peak traffic at the junction in mornings was 8720 passenger car units (PCU) per hour while in the evenings it was 9293 pcu per hour. The project is being executed by Simplex Infrastructure Pvt Ltd who had earlier done Anand Rao circle flyover.

HIGHLIGHTS

* Yeshwanthpur circle is a junction of five roads including NH4 and Yeshwanthpur Main road.

* Project was scheduled to complete by 19-12-07

* Revised deadline is December, 2008.



CRAWLING PROJECTS

The pace of infrastructure project development in Bangalore has always frustrated the citizens. While the city’s population grew by leaps and bounds, the flyovers and roads, underpasses and overbridges simply did not come up with the same speed.

BANGALORE 360 Degrees takes a look at many such pending projects in the City. First on the agenda is the Yeshwanthpur flyover.

What is your view on the infrastructure project progress in Bangalore City. Send your valuable suggestions,
observations and views to bangalore360@gmail.com