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TIMESCITY

New Delhi: Delhi govern-ments much-delayed Signa-ture Bridge project at Wazira-bad, being built at a cost ofRs 1,131 crore, has hit a rockypatch, quite li terally. The Del-hi Tourism & TransportationDevelopment Corporation(DTTDC) is now trying hardto get past this hurdle to deliv-er on the renewed deadline ofSeptember 2015.

With the machines re-quired to negotiate the rockystretch to dig deeperso thatthe anchor that will hold themain bridge to the ground canbe builtnot being availablein India, the constructioncompany hired by the state isnow sourcing it from Malay-sia. The machine is expectedto arrive in about 2-3 months.

There are indications thatthe bridge may get delayed be-yond next year stretching the

completion period to Febru-ary 2016 if the present targetsfor delivery are not met. So far,only the two approaches

eastern and western havebeen completed. While theeastern approach has beenopened to the public, the west-ern one will be inauguratednext month.

In a presentation on theprojects roller-coaster jour-ney made before the Delhichief secretary, DTTDC

stated that the problem wasin one of the well foundationsdescribing it as unexpectedrock profile. The design has

since been modified as wellscannot be sunk through rock.To overcome the technicalconstruction issue, theDTTDC board of directors ina meeting on July 31 approvedthe proposal for procurementof two boring rigs and com-municated it to the contractorJV of Gammon India.

The state government hascleared that no further delayswill be acceptable and chiefsecretary, DM Sp olia, made

may escalate further. Of thepresent projected cost of Rs

1,131 crore, two approaches tothe bridge have been built at acost of Rs 348 crore. The mainbridge is expected to cost Rs631.81 crore and other associ-ated works would cost Rs150.29 crore.

The Signature Bridge atWazirabad, planned as a Delhilandmark was supposed to beinaugurated before the 2010Commonwealth Games. Itwas to be developed into animportant tourist spot on Del-his map.

The project has beenmarred by delays over theyears for various reasons.These range from 21 environ-mental clearances to finan-cial constraints cited by thecontractor from time to time.

There were others reasonslinked to repeated revision ofcost which saw it run intohurdles. During the tenure ofthe Sheila Dikshit-led Con-

gress government, the projectwas repeatedly put beforethe cabinet due to cost escala-tion issues.

his unease and annoyancewith the many missed dead-lines evident at a review earli-er this month. I certainly amconcerned about the delaysand pace of work of the Signa-ture Bridge. In a review earli-er this month I told officials toensure that deadlines are metfor sure, Spolia told TOI. Tou-rism secretary, SS Yadav saidthat to stick to the deadline allefforts are on to expedite pro-curement of requisite ma-chines by the contractor JV ofGammon India so that workon the main bridge can be de-livered in time.

From an initial cost of Rs887 crore the latest on the pro-ject brief shows that the totalis Rs 1,131 crore now and this

Machines Needed To Complete Digging Work To Be Sourced From Malaysia

LONG WAY TO GO: So far only two approaches have been built

Yogesh Kumar

Signature Bridge hits a rocky patchThere are indications

that the bridge mayget delayed beyondnext year stretchingthe completionperiod to February2016 if presenttargets are not met

Ambika.Pandit

@timesgroup.com

New Delhi: The enrolment ofbeneficiaries under the Rightto Food Act has brought to thefore lakhs of cases of AbovePoverty Line (APL) rationcardholders who never cameforward to register for theFood Security Programmeproving that many of themmay be bogus.

Stoppage of ration supplyto these cardholders means a

monthly saving of Rs 50 crorefor the Centre and Rs 2 crorefor Delhi government.

An assessment of the dataon attempts to weed out bogusration cards by the state and

streamline supply to genuinebeneficiaries shows that out of11.5 lakh households withstamped APL cards (APL), on-ly four lakh came forward toapply under the food pro-gramme. To prevent misuse ofthese cards, ration to the re-maining 7.5 lakh householdshas been stopped on orders offood and supplies commis-sioner, SS Yadav. However, ifany such household submitsapplication for food security,ration supply will be resumed.

Ration supply was stoppedto another 1.55 lakh house-holds from among the 6.29lakh-plus Below Poverty Lineand Antyodaya Ann Yojanacardholders.

Food plan unearthsbogus ration cards

Ambika.Pandit

@timesgroup.com

The body will later provide asample of each model for test-ing at a government-approvedfacility. The standards andtesting norms will be samefor both existing and new e-rickshaws. Ministry sourcessaid they had come out withthe best possible norm andmechanism.

But those fighting for safe-ty of commuters are up inarms against the provisions.

This mechanism would in ef-fect give legal sanction to un-safe e-rickshaws becausetheres no standardization inthese vehicles, said S P Singhof IFTRT, a thinktank on

transport issues. Ironically,this comes only two days afterthe ministry came out withthe draft road transport and

safety bill to bring in worldclass vehicle safety and roadtraffic management systems.

Giving an illustration ofhow rules should have beenfollowed, Singh said that a

leading manufacturer of four-wheeled quadrilateral vehi-cles wanted to bring its vehicleto India as a rickshaw, but wasnot certified by the testingagency as there was no suchdescription under the CMVR.

That company waited tillprovisions were incorporatedin the Central Motor VehicleRules. It did not use the ab-sence of legislation to to by-pass the law. How could e-rick-shaw manufacturers, despitepublic warnings, avoided tak-

ing quality certification ofroad worthiness of their pro-to-type? Instead, they kept sell-ing their vehicles in the mar-ket causing a grave danger topublic safety? Singh said.

Experts fear unsafe modelswould slip through loopholes

TO RETURN IN NEW AVATAR

Continued from P1

New Delhi: Even as the Cen-tre is mulling over a MotorVehicles Act that is interna-tional in its scope, its imple-mentation is likely to be a ma-

jor challenge for transportauthorities. In Delhi, thetransport department is ma-naging with less than 150 peo-ple in its enforcement wing.And with no hiring in the pastfive years, staff shortage hasturned the department into atoothless one.

That the situation is grimcan be gauged from the factthat one of the most high-profile projects of the trans-port departmentauction-ing of fancy numberpla-teshas been handed over toanother state company due tolack of manpower.

Delhi government sourc-

es admit that a shrinkingworkforce has had a directimpact on the functioning ofthe department. Drivesagainst polluting vehicleshave been intermittent, ashave drives against vehiclesviolating other norms. Evenwhen drives are carried out,traffic police need to be ropedin. Its a conscious decisionto keep the maximum num-ber of enforcement person-nel focused on commercialvehicles. There are 13 borderpoints into Delhi, and ram-pant violations by trucks andbuses take place there, said asenior transport departmentofficial.

The ambit of duties of thetransport department is vast:from registration of vehiclesand issuance of driving li-cences to conducting fitnesstests, granting permits andkeeping a check on the entryof trucks into the city are

some of them.Yet, in the past two dec-

ades, the Delhi governmenthas not carried out a properrestructuring of the enforce-ment wing. Even the basic ex-

ercise of filling out vacanciesremains an area of neglect.The Delhi transport depart-ments enforcement wing hasa skeletal staff of seven oreight teams of four memberseach. Till last month, thenumber stood at a little over130 personnel in the ranks ofinspectors, sub-inspectorsand constables. Vacancies forover a hundred personnel re-main unfilled despite de-

mands for the same.The situation is similar in

other wings as well.There is an acute short-

age of staff. There hasnt beena single induction of MVIs

since 1998, despite the factthat the number of appli-cants for licences has shot upin these years, said a seniorofficial. The fact that pollu-tion level testing inspectors(PLTI) also double up as mo-tor vehicle inspectors (MVIs)speaks volumes about the im-portance that the govern-ment has given to road s afety.

Lack of inspectorsandthus lack of time, along withno separate testing groundmeans the driving test is alsonot taken seriously.

Dr S Velumurugan of theCentral Road Research Insti-tute said, Inappropriatedriving behaviour is consid-ered one of the major causesof road accidents in India ascompared to defective geo-metric design of pavement ormechanical defects in vehi-

cles. It can result in condi-tions such as lack of lane dis-cipline, disregard for trafficlaws, frequent traffic viola-tions, increase in crashes dueto self-centred driving etc.

Transport dept lacksbite with staff crunch

LOSING OUTON HEADCOUNT

81Lis the numberof registered vehiclesin the city

150is the numberof personnel inenforcement wing

13is the numberof zonal transportoffices

20is the numberof motor vehicleinspectors (MVIs)engaged in conductingdriving licence testfor nearly 6 lakhapplicants every year

Registration ofvehicles

Driving tests

Fitness tests

Pollution tests

Issuance ofpermits to variouscategories ofvehicle

13 majorborders where

commercialvehicles to beweighed in

121 booths fortoll collection

Enforcementdrives againstviolation of motorvehicles rules

Managementand operation ofISBTs

Transport department monitors

Testing Times

There is no ground in Delhi toconduct driving licence test

No induction of MVI since 1998

Each RTO issues around 1,500-5,000DLs every month

An MVI can officially conduct DL testsfor a maximum of 80 applicants in a day;but they test 150-200 licence seekers

Rumu.Banerjee@timesgroup.com

Transport officials sayno motor vehicleinspectors have beeninducted since 1998.This is despite thenumber of applicantsfor licences shootingup over the years

THE TIMES OF INDIA, NEWDELHI | TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER16, 2014

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