For want of funds, ITMS project scrapped in Ghaziabad

GHAZIABAD: The ambitious Integrated Traffic Management System (ITMS) project may not see the light of the day any time soon in Ghaziabad.
The project has been put in the backburner after the private firm entrusted with the responsibility was blacklisted in Bhopal leading to the Ghaziabad Development Authority (GDA) issuing notice to it. The firm didn’t respond to GDA’s notice following which the contract with the firm was terminated.
The GDA which is already facing financial crunch is not very inclined to take up the project, at least in the near future and the official has hinted that the project on their end stands ‘scrapped’.Interestingly, prime minister Narender Modi had laid the foundation stone of the project last year in March.
“The firm-Technosys Security Systems (P) Ltd had started the work on ITMS project in Ghaziabad on two corridors-Hindon Elevated Road and Hindon civil terminal road but in the meantime, objections were raised by some GMC councillors,” said VN Singh, chief engineer, GDA.
“The GMC councillors had taken up the issue that the company was blacklisted in Bhopal after it failed to carry out maintenance, we had then issued notice to the company which failed to reply, so we had to terminate the contract” added Singh.
The firm representative, on the other hand, refuted claims made by GDA. “It is not true that we did not furnish the required information to GDA, we had responded to development authority’s notice, the main reason GDA had to shelve the project was due to financial crunch and the bickering with the GMC which was opposed to the project,” said Neeraj Kushwaha, director of Technosys Security Systems (P) Ltd.
“In fact, a GDA official closely associated with the project had privately confessed to us that GDA is plagued with a financial crunch and it cannot afford to fund the project and this is the actual reason why the project was scrapped” added Neeraj Kushwaha. The estimated cost of the project was Rs 70 crore in which GMC was also supposed to contribute.
Meanwhile GDA chief engineer VN Singh did acknowledge the fact that there was indeed fund issue but apart from that the blacklisting of firm in Bhopal on the recommendation of Bhopal police also led to the decision of terminating the contract. “Apart from other issues mentioned there was also a fund issue which led to the scrapping of the project,” said Singh.
The scrapping of the ITMS project has dealt a body blow to the city’s traffic management and surveillance. In the backdrop of spurt in crime, a senior police official said that ITMS could have proved to be a game-changer in better traffic management and controlling crime. “The ITMS apart from aiding in traffic management could have provided us with extra eyes to keep an eye on crime incidents through its hi-definition cameras,” said a senior police official.