New Delhi: The Public Works Department (PWD) on Friday informed the Delhi High Court that the construction of Signature Bridge would be completed by October-end. During the last hearing in the case; the court had rapped the authorities for “quibbling over” the amount to be paid for the construction of the long overdue Signature Bridge. It had also asked for physical inspection of the bridge by various authorities to take a stock of the progress of the work.
Chief Justice Rajendra Menon and Justice V.K. Rao’s bench has asked the officials to hand over a status report. The High Court has fixed November 14 for the next hearing of the matter.
The bench said that the case will be heard in the second week of November so that the officers can complete the project and submit a report by the trial.
Advocate of Public Works Department (PWD) told the High Court that the project work will be completed by October and after this, it will be trialed. This bridge will connect Delhi to industrial areas of Uttar Pradesh.
According to the government, the bridge got environmental clearance in 2011 and it was to be completed by December 2013. Completion of this project was extended till June 2016. After this, it was done until July 2017. Later, the timeline for completing this project was done in December 2017.
The Signature Bridge project was approved by the Delhi cabinet in 2007. However, even after 15 years, the bridge is yet to be completed. The bridge will link Delhi with Uttar Pradesh’s industrial areas such as the Tronica city in Ghaziabad.
In July 2017, the AAP government had released Rs 100 crore for the project and set a new deadline of March 2018, which was further pushed to April 2018, June 2018, and now, to October 2018.
Signature Bridge is expected to share the burden of vehicular traffic being borne by the Wazirabad Bridge, which the PWD stated requires “structural rehabilitation and strengthening”.