Slow and unsteady facelift for Commonwealth Games

Days after chief minister Sheila Dikshit took her team to task for lagging behind in executing Commonwealth Games projects, Mail Today finds that most stretches are lying dug up and unfinished masonry littered all over in the name of streetscaping

The entrails ripped out of several of the Capital's sidewalks - particularly those located around Commonwealth Games venues - give the lie to the civic agencies' claims that streetscaping work on 23 roads is almost 90 per cent complete.

That these eyesores have led Delhi chief minister Sheila Dikshit to serve a stiff August 31 ultimatum for completion of CWG projects bears further testimony to the beautification venture making excruciatingly slow progress.

The fact is that just around 50 per cent work has been finished on almost all roads. The Municipal Corporation of Delhi's ( MCD's) July 15 streetscaping deadline for stretches such as Bhishma Pitamah Marg and Lodhi Road (abutting Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium), Maharishi Valmiki Marg (approach road to Thyagaraj Stadium) and Chaudhary Dalip Singh Marg (leading to Siri Fort Sports Complex) is, therefore, as good as missed.

The Public Works Department (PWD) hasn't fared much better on the pavements of Marginal Bund Road - the stretch leading to the Games Village near Akshardham Temple.

With a substantial portion of the work remaining in all these areas and the monsoon bottleneck looming, the worry now is whether the streetscaping projects will at all be ready in time for the sporting extravaganza which is less than 90 days away.

MCD has received Rs 100 crore from the Delhi government for 2010 Games streetscaping work

This stretch leads to the Akshardham Temple and the CWG Village in East Delhi. Four days after being pulled up by the Delhi government for the tardy progress of work here, the PWD hasn't yet got cracking.

A large portion of the streetscaping work lies incomplete on this road. But the civic agency has not bothered to deploy more labourers to expedite the project, which includes paving and greening of sidewalks.

The large amount of construction material on the road shows the work may take another month to finish. "A lot of stone work is left. We need to lay the tiles and intersperse them with granite slabs, which will take at least a month," a labourer said.

While urban development minister A. K. Walia and transport minister Arvinder Singh Lovely have been assured by the PWD that work will be wrapped up soon, the actual situation is grim.

At an inspection last week, Walia had said the PWD must speed up.

"I am dissatisfied with the progress of upgrade of roads leading to the Village and have instructed officials to accelerate," Walia had said. The minister was particularly upset with work on a flyover near the Village.