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TIMES CITY
New Delhi: Delhi govern-
ments much-delayed Signa-
ture Bridge project at Wazira-
bad, being built at a cost of
Rs 1,131 crore, has hit a rocky
patch, quite literally. The Del-
hi Tourism & Transportation
Development Corporation
(DTTDC) is now trying hard
to get past this hurdle to deliv-
er on the renewed deadline of
September 2015.
With the machines re-
quired to negotiate the rocky
stretch to dig deeperso that
the anchor that will hold the
main bridge to the ground can
be builtnot being available
in India, the construction
company hired by the state is
now sourcing it from Malay-
sia. The machine is expected
to arrive in about 2-3 months.
There are indications that
the bridge may get delayed be-
yond next year stretching the
completion period to Febru-
ary 2016 if the present targets
for delivery are not met. So far,
only the two approaches
eastern and western have
been completed. While the
eastern approach has been
opened to the public, the west-
ern one will be inaugurated
next month.
In a presentation on the
projects roller-coaster jour-
ney made before the Delhi
chief secretary, DTTDC
stated that the problem was
in one of the well foundations
describing it as unexpected
rock profile. The design has
since been modified as wells
cannot be sunk through rock.
To overcome the technical
construction issue, the
DTTDC board of directors in
ameeting on July 31 approved
the proposal for procurement
of two boring rigs and com-
municated it to the contractor
JV of Gammon India.
The state government has
cleared that no further delays
will be acceptable and chief
secretary, DM Spolia, made
may escalate further. Of the
present projected cost of Rs
1,131 crore, two approaches to
the bridge have been built at a
cost of Rs 348 crore. The main
bridge is expected to cost Rs
631.81 crore and other associ-
ated works would cost Rs
150.29 crore.
The Signature Bridge at
Wazirabad, planned as a Delhi
landmark was supposed to be
inaugurated before the 2010
Commonwealth Games. It
was to be developed into an
important tourist spot on Del-
his map.
The project has been
marred by delays over the
years for various reasons.
These range from 21 environ-
mental clearances to finan-
cial constraints cited by the
contractor from time to time.
There were others reasons
linked to repeated revision of
cost which saw it run into
hurdles. During the tenure of
the Sheila Dikshit-led Con-
gress government, the project
was repeatedly put before
the cabinet due to cost escala-
tion issues.
his unease and annoyance
with the many missed dead-
lines evident at a review earli-
er this month. I certainly am
concerned about the delays
and pace of work of the Signa-
ture Bridge. In a review earli-
er this month I told officials to
ensure that deadlines are met
for sure, Spolia told TOI. Tou-
rism secretary, SS Yadav said
that to stick to the deadline all
efforts are on to expedite pro-
curement of requisite ma-
chines by the contractor JV of
Gammon India so that work
on the main bridge can be de-
livered in time.
From an initial cost of Rs
887 crore the latest on the pro-
ject brief shows that the total
is 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 patch
There are indications
that the bridge may
get delayed beyond
next year stretching
the completion
period to February
2016 if present
targets are not met
Ambika.Pandit
@timesgroup.com
New Delhi: The enrolment of
beneficiaries under the Right
to Food Act has brought to the
fore lakhs of cases of Above
Poverty Line (APL) ration
cardholders who never came
forward to register for the
Food Security Programme
proving that many of them
may be bogus.
Stoppage of ration supply
to these cardholders means a
monthly saving of Rs 50 crore
for the Centre and Rs 2 crore
for Delhi government.
An assessment of the data
on attempts to weed out bogus
ration cards by the state and
streamline supply to genuine
beneficiaries shows that out of
11.5 lakh households with
stamped APL cards (APL), on-
ly four lakh came forward to
apply under the food pro-
gramme. To prevent misuse of
these cards, ration to the re-
maining 7.5 lakh households
has been stopped on orders of
food and supplies commis-
sioner, SS Yadav. However, if
any such household submits
application for food security,
ration supply will be resumed.
Ration supply was stopped
to another 1.55 lakh house-
holds from among the 6.29
lakh-plus Below Poverty Line
and Antyodaya Ann Yojana
cardholders.
Food plan unearths
bogus ration cards
Ambika.Pandit
@timesgroup.com
The body will later provide a
sample of each model for test-
ingat a government-approved
facility. The standards and
testing norms will be same
for both existing and new e-
rickshaws. Ministry sources
said they had come out with
the best possible norm and
mechanism.
But those fighting for safe-
ty of commuters are up in
arms against the provisions.
This mechanism would in ef-
fect give legal sanction to un-
safe e-rickshaws because
theres no standardization in
these vehicles, said S P Singh
of IFTRT, a thinktank on
transport issues. Ironically,
this comes only two days after
the ministry came out with
the draft road transport and
safety bill to bring in world
class vehicle safety and road
traffic management systems.
Giving an illustration of
how rules should have been
followed, Singh said that a
leading manufacturer of four-
wheeled quadrilateral vehi-
cles wanted to bring its vehicle
to India as a rickshaw, but was
not certified by the testing
agency as there was no such
description under the CMVR.
That company waited till
provisions were incorporated
in the Central Motor Vehicle
Rules. It did not use the ab-
sence of legislation to to by-
pass the law. How could e-rick-
shaw manufacturers, despite
public warnings, avoided tak-
ing quality certification of
road worthiness of their pro-
to-type? Instead, they kept sell-
ing their vehicles in the mar-
ket causing a grave danger to
public safety? Singh said.
Experts fear unsafe models
would slip through loopholes
TO RETURN IN NEW AVATAR
Continued from P1
New Delhi: Even as the Cen-
tre is mulling over a Motor
Vehicles Act that is interna-
tional in its scope, its imple-
mentation is likely to be a ma-
jor challenge for transport
authorities. In Delhi, the
transport department is ma-
naging with less than 150 peo-
ple in its enforcement wing.
And with no hiring in the past
five years, staff shortage has
turned the department into a
toothless one.
That the situation is grim
can be gauged from the fact
that one of the most high-
profile projects of the trans-
port departmentauction-
ing of fancy numberpla-
teshas been handed over to
another state company due to
lack of manpower.
Delhi government sourc-
es admit that a shrinking
workforce has had a direct
impact on the functioning of
the department. Drives
against polluting vehicles
have been intermittent, as
have drives against vehicles
violating other norms. Even
when drives are carried out,
traffic police need to be roped
in. Its a conscious decision
to keep the maximum num-
ber of enforcement person-
nel focused on commercial
vehicles. There are 13 border
points into Delhi, and ram-
pant violations by trucks and
buses take place there, said a
senior transport department
official.
The ambit of duties of the
transport department is vast:
from registration of vehicles
and issuance of driving li-
cences to conducting fitness
tests, granting permits and
keeping a check on the entry
of trucks into the city are
some of them.
Yet, in the past two dec-
ades, the Delhi government
has not carried out a proper
restructuring of the enforce-
ment wing. Even the basic ex-
ercise of filling out vacancies
remains an area of neglect.
The Delhi transport depart-
ments enforcement wing has
a skeletal staff of seven or
eight teams of four members
each. Till last month, the
number stood at a little over
130 personnel in the ranks of
inspectors, sub-inspectors
and constables. Vacancies for
over 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 been
a single induction of MVIs
since 1998, despite the fact
that the number of appli-
cants for licences has shot up
in these years, said a senior
official. 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 safety.
Lack of inspectorsand
thus lack of time, along with
no separate testing ground
means the driving test is also
not taken seriously.
Dr S Velumurugan of the
Central Road Research Insti-
tute said, Inappropriate
driving behaviour is consid-
ered one of the major causes
of road accidents in India as
compared to defective geo-
metric design of pavement or
mechanical defects in vehi-
cles. It can result in condi-
tions such as lack of lane dis-
cipline, disregard for traffic
laws, frequent traffic viola-
tions, increase in crashes due
to self-centred driving etc.
Transport dept lacks
bite with staff crunch
LOSING OUT ON HEADCOUNT
81L is the number
of registered vehicles
in the city
150 is the number
of personnel in
enforcement wing
13 is the number
of zonal transport
ofces
20is the number
of motor vehicle
inspectors (MVIs)
engaged in conducting
driving licence test
for nearly 6 lakh
applicants every year
Registration of
vehicles
Driving tests
Fitness tests
Pollution tests
Issuance of
permits to various
categories of
vehicle
13 major
borders where
commercial
vehicles to be
weighed in
121 booths for
toll collection
Enforcement
drives against
violation of motor
vehicles rules
Management
and operation of
ISBTs
Transport department monitors
Testing Times
There is no ground in Delhi to
conduct driving licence test
No induction of MVI since 1998
Each RTO issues around 1,500-5,000
DLs every month
An MVI can ofcially conduct DL tests
for a maximum of 80 applicants in a day;
but they test 150-200 licence seekers
Rumu.Banerjee
@timesgroup.com
Transport officials say
no motor vehicle
inspectors have been
inducted since 1998.
This is despite the
number of applicants
for licences shooting
up over the years
THE TIMES OF INDIA, NEWDELHI | TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 16, 2014
10, 12 & 14