CM inaugurates parking facility for 820 buses near Nehru stadium

Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit today inaugurated Prem Nagar underpass and the Kushak and Sunheri Nallah parking facility near Jawaharlal Nehru stadium, the main venue for the Commonwealth Games. The site, developed by the MCD at a cost of Rs 303.95 crore by covering Kushak and Sunheri nallah, will provide parking facility for 820 buses during the Games and afterwards. Though developed to provide ample parking facility during the Games, the Chief Minister described it as a permanent infrastructure for Delhi. Such a facility was necessitated keeping in mind the large number of players, officials, mediapersons and spectators expected to visit the stadium for the opening and closing ceremonies. She expressed confidence that the parking facility will suffice during the Games. A total of 10,000 hutments and staff quarters of DJB and MCD, pipelines, BSNL power cables and water pipelines were relocated or shifted to bring up this parking area, which took a record time of 16 months. The parking area stretches over approximately 1.28 lakh sq mts. A length of 1030 metres was covered over Kushak Nallah extending from Sewa Nagar Culvert to Nehru Stadium South Gate, while a stretch of 950 metres was covered over the Sunheri Nallah from Dayal Singh College Campus upto Lala Lajpatrai Marg behind Lodhi Hotel. The waterway of both of the nallahs beneath the parking has been kept at 46 meters. There are three sets of modern toilet complexes and two restrooms at each parking.

The Chief Minister congratulated the MCD and its engineers for completing the work in record time and within the set budget.

She also inaugurated the Prem Nagar Underpass constructed with Rs 20.75 crore in a time period of 18 months.

Speaking on this occasion, Mayor Shri Sahney said the newly-constructed parking sites will be connected later on with Barapulla Elevated Road to Lodhi Colony and INA. A large number of DTC AC buses were parked there to exhibit parking capacity.

Local MLA Shri Neeraj Basoya, local councillors, Chief Secretary Rakesh Mehta, Principal Secretary to CM P K Tripathi, Commissioner (MCD) K S Mehra, MD (DTC) Naresh Kumar, Special Advisor, CWG Ramesh Narayansami were also present on this occasion.