₹3.5k Cr Infra Plan Includes Flyovers, Water Treatment Upgrades, and Electric Buses, ET RealEstate
GURUGRAM: Construction of flyovers, redevelopment of Southern Peripheral Road (SPR), increasing capacity of water treatment plants, getting electric buses and installing 10,000 CCTV cameras – are among key projects to be taken up at GMDA’s board meeting on Wednesday.
The Authority’s board will present its Rs 2,887 crore budget for FY 2024-25, apart from projects worth Rs 3,500 to chief minister Nayab Singh Saini for approval as he chairs the meeting in Chandigarh.
This is the first board meeting to be held after a year, and the first to be chaired by Saini, who was appointed Haryana CM in April this year.
GMDA officials said on Tuesday that a key proposal that needs administrative approval is the construction of two flyovers at the intersections of sectors 45-46-51-52 and sectors 85-86-89-90.
Another is the Rs 634 crore redevelopment of Tau Devi Lal Stadium. The proposal aims to increase the stadium’s seating capacity to 35,000 for the cricket ground and 15,000 for the football ground. Construction of a swimming pool is part of the proposal.
The redevelopment of SPR from Vatika Chowk to the CPR-SPR junction on the Delhi-Jaipur highway (NH-8) is among the projects on GMDA’s agenda.
At the last Authority meeting, then CM Manohar Lal Khattar had directed officials to redesign the project to connect SPR with the Dwarka and Delhi-Mumbai expressways. The project to redevelop SPR was first planned in March 2019, and it got administration approval in June 2022. The initial plan was to revamp a 14km stretch of SPR from Ghata T-point till NH-8 by building eight flyovers, widening carriageways to six lanes and adding service lanes – all for Rs 845.5 crore.
But concerns were raised about the need to build three flyovers between Vatika Chowk and NH-8, given that traffic volume wasn’t too high on the stretch.
It was then suggested that the portion of SPR from NH-8 to Vatika Chowk should be elevated for a seamless commute from Shiv Murti in Delhi to the highway and Delhi-Mumbai Expressway.
“As per the direction of the Authority, the redevelopment plan from Vatika Chowk to NH-8 has been revised to a signal-free elevated corridor to provide connectivity to Dwarka Expressway and the Delhi-Mumbai Expressway. The matter will be placed before the authority for approval. Once approved, it will ease the congestion and connectivity to UER-II,” a senior GMDA official said. The Authority’s water division has proposed projects worth Rs 1,400 crore to augment the city’s water supply, upgrade its drain network and increase sewage treatment capacity.
These include additional filtration units at water treatment plants (WTPs) in Chandu Budhera and Basai, expected to enhance each WTP’s capacity by 100 million litres a day. A second GMDA official said on Tuesday that a detailed project report has been prepared and the project cost is estimated at Rs 325 crore.
Another project is the procurement of 200 electric buses as the existing fleet of 200 CNG buses will have to be phased out by 2029.
“We are expected to get 200 electric buses under the PM e-Sewa scheme by this financial year. We have proposed augmenting 200 electric buses of 12 metre length for the next financial year to boost public transport. Similarly, we are working on improving supporting infrastructure such as bus depots for better operation of city buses,” a third GMDA official said.
