RUB of green for Kishanganj project: Hope for bridge 21 years in making

New Delhi: Conceived two decades ago and having failed to meet several deadlines due o shortage of funds, the Kishanganj railway underbridge (RUB) project is set to get a fresh push with the Centre agreeing to pitch in. A senior north corporation official on Friday said: “We had sought Rs 48 crore to complete the project. During its latest review meeting, the ministry of housing and urban affairs agreed to provide 80% of the funds. The remaining funding will come from the civic body itself.”
The amount will be transferred to Northern Railway, which is currently engaged in making concrete push-boxes for the underbridge.The fate of the project had been hanging in balance and a corporation official had earlier told TOI that the work might stop again if the civic body failed to clear Rs 31 crore in dues to Northern Railway. The initial proposal for the project was made in 1998. Several revisions and re-revisions later, the civic body has only been able to open one “push box”, instead of four, so far. Once completed, it is expected to decongest Sadar Bazar, Rohtak Road, areas under Walled City extension and Azad Market.
An official said: “Each structure is composed of one RCC box for vehicle access, cemented concrete approach roads and RCC retaining walls, along with provisions of sump well with a capacity of 2.38 lakh litres. A joint pump house and drainage/sewerage lines have also been developed to keep groundwater and monsoon troubles at bay.” The corporation had opened a portion of the RUB late last year so that at least one-way traffic could start moving. Construction work for Phase I took 27 months to complete.
A senior corporation official said the rest of the project was expected to be completed in 18 months. “The only remaining hurdle may be some jhuggis, but since they are located on railway land, we expect Northern Railway to clear them up,” he added. Explaining the reasons behind the delay, another corporation official explained: “The challenges in this project were primarily related to shifting of shops, religious structures and utilities. We had to relocate a large number of shops to different locations.”
Several of the city’s railway overbridge and underbridge projects come under the jurisdiction of north corporation and almost all of them have invariably witnessed delays and cost overruns. Several years after the project failed to proceed and the contractor ran away, 180MT steel bars meant for the Sultanpuri railway overbridge/underbridge went to scrap for a measly Rs 22/kg. While tenders were issued again, the project has still not been completed more than 10 years after it started.