CP renovation to take longer

Shoppers tired of walking through the dug-up streets and lanes of Connaught Place in the heart of the Capital will have to wait a little longer as major sections of the ambitious Rs.671-crore re-development project of the New Delhi Municipal Council would be completed only by this July/August.

The rest of the work will be undertaken after the Commonwealth Games in October.

While facade restoration is being undertaken in 10 blocks of CP, simultaneous work is on for refurbishment and improvement of parking lots along with construction of four new subways on Barakhamba Road and Panchkuian Road.

As traffic clearance has been granted for only a section of the roads where these subways are being constructed, the civic body is undertaking work on only one-third portion of the subway at a time.

“The traffic police needed space to ensure traffic movement on the roads where we are constructing the subways, so we are working on only one-third portion at a time. We would be opening the first one-third portion of all four subways by June end providing relief to pedestrians. The rest would be taken up subsequently,” says an NDMC official.

“The subways would be completed by August or September and the parking by August, while the façade restoration work would be finished by June-end or July. Parking improvements have been completed in Blocks C and D and work in Blocks E and F is going on at present. These improvements include laying of new flooring in the existing parking spaces due to which parking space may increase or decrease in some stretches,” he added.

Commenting on reasons for the delay, the NDMC official said: “After chipping the plaster off several blocks for façade restoration we found that there was no concrete structure left on the pillars and columns to support the building, so we had to begin re-constructing entire columns and pillars. This retrofitting process would cause a delay of another 15 to 20 days. Other than that there are no stumbling blocks as of now.”

Meanwhile, work for construction of the underground services tunnel in the Middle Circle, where ducting of all electricity and water lines would be done, is under way in Blocks A, B, E and F but would be completed only after the Games is over. Similarly, the setting up of a centralised air-conditioning plant in CP will also be taken up after the Games because of paucity of time.

“The services ducting work in Blocks C and D would be completed after the Games as we got official clearances for it at a later date and also because we thought it not fit to block all strategic points in CP at one time. The air-conditioning plant too will be taken up after the Games,” the official said.

With massive road stretches dug up for the works and tedious traffic diversions in place for pedestrians and commuters alike, further problems of water-logging and traffic jams during the upcoming monsoon season are anticipated in the area. However, the civic body claims it has made arrangements to tackle any crisis.

“We are aware of the problems that might take place and have made arrangements for pumping machines to flush out excess water that might accumulate at strategic points. At other places care has been taken to keep the existing drainage pipelines intact to do their job when it rains. So we are not expecting any major problems in CP during the monsoon,” the official added.