Promises prove hollow as many projects fail to even take offseen

Many Commonwealth Games projects that MCD announced with much fanfare a year back have been scrapped now. These include parking projects, construction of 17 railway underbridges and overbridges and redevelopment of Chandni Chowk. The projects on which work did start are now running behind schedule.

The work on upgrading guesthouses and improving areas like Paharganj and Karol Bagh, construction of toilets and sanitation work are all behind schedule.

According to mayor P R Sawhney: "The facelift in Paharganj, Karol Bagh and Daryaganj was delayed because agencies like MTNL and BSES took time to complete their work. Waterlogging during rain was also a problem.'' Sources say MCD will be able to complete only 40% of the work in Karol Bagh and Daryaganj.

The civic body is also struggling with the streetscaping work at many places apparently quite unnecessary in many areas. For delays in beautification, it blames encroachment on roads. The civic body is spending Rs 40 crore on general streetscaping and another Rs 140 crore on beautifying stretches near the Games venues.

As far as construction of toilets go, only eight of MCD's ambitious toilet-cum-coffee houses will be constructed before the Games. The civic agency wanted to build around 250 such complexes. Also, only 200 of the 1,000 waterless urinals are ready so far. The cost of constructing these toilets is Rs 35 crore.

With many of MCD's project under the CVC scanner due to alleged corruption, the civic body is planning to launch its own vigilance probe. According to the CVC, the bid documents for the streetlight project were tampered with.

Said the mayor: "We will ask our vigilance department to investigate our projects to ensure that there are no instances of corruption.''

As far as sanitation is concerned, MCD is yet to install dustbins despite floating proposals for numerous designs. Moreover, the large underground dustbins which were supposed to replace dhalaos are yet to be procured by the civic agency.

MCD was supposed to construct a total of 46 parking lots conventional and multi-level of which only two or three will be ready before Games. The work on constructing 17 railway underbridges and overbridges is underway across the city but not even one is near completion.