New Delhi (The Hawk): Nitin Gadkari, the Union Minister for Road Transport and Highways, and Delhi Lt. Governor (L-G) V.K. Saxena met and the former decided to give Delhi Rs 700 crore from the central road budget for the building, mending, maintaining, and beautifying of roads in the national capital.
The Public Works Department, the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD), and other road-owning organisations in Delhi would benefit greatly from this windfall gain, which will significantly improve the capital's road network.
According to a source on Wednesday, Gadkari also instructed NHAI to cover the cost of maintaining, beautifying, and repairing all of its city roads as well as the expense of upgrading the stretch of road between Mahipalpur (IGI airport) and Dhaula Kuan, which is being done in mission mode under the direct supervision of the L-G.
The Union Minister instructed the NHAI to lift and use all of the inert for its road construction projects after the L-G requested that the organisation use the inert gathered at the three dump sites in Delhi in addition to the 20 lakh tonnes that it had already agreed to use.
Gadkari emphasised that even if the NHAI would incur higher transportation costs as a result of this, it would nevertheless help the national capital level the waste mountains that had accumulated in the city over many years.
Senior representatives from both sides attended the conference, which was held to resolve concerns relating to NHAI projects like UER-II, Dwarka Expressway, Delhi-Dehradun Highway, and parallel flyover at Vasant Kunj Sector C-D. It was presided over by Gadkari and L-G Saxena.
The source claims that during the meeting, it was disclosed that all outstanding issues between the Delhi Government, Delhi Development Authority, and the MCD regarding the aforementioned had already been resolved, including tree cutting, translocation permissions, land allocation, handing over of possession of allotted land, removal of garbage collection points, and shifting of power transmission lines.
According to the source, the L-G has been actively guiding these long-pending issues over the past few months. The most recent step was the December 19 approval of plans for tree translocation, which removed any remaining obstacles to the completion of crucial NHAI projects.
(Inputs from Agencies)