BENGALURU: The much-delayed 2.38-km Ejipura flyover or elevated corridor project, work on which began in 2017, has missed even the Deepavali deadline.
The project may not be completed even by December-end. According to officials, 82% of work has been completed. Work on the ramp near Madiwala and Srinivagilu has to be completed.
Of the 762 spans (horizontal sections between two adjacent structural supports, such as piers or abutments), five have to be fixed and fixing each span will take 8 to 10 days.
The delay in land acquisition for a 7.5-metre carriageway on each side near Ejipura and St John’s hospital, has resulted in the incompletion of the project. The tardiness of the contractor is also to be blamed for the delay.
“BSPCL was supposed to complete the project on February 14, 2025. Earlier, penalties were imposed for the delay. After taking property owners into confidence, now we are pushing hard to open the flyover for traffic at least by the end of 2026,” a senior engineer monitoring the project’s progress said.
The viaduct length for vehicular traffic is 2.096 km. So far, engineers have completed work till 1.945 km. Work on the retaining wall, friction slab and crash barrier has been completed on the Ejipura side ramp. But work on the pavement is yet to be completed.
Work on the retaining wall and friction slab on the Madiwala side ramp has been completed. Work on crash barriers and pavements is pending.
Similarly, works such as crash barrier and median, drainage spout fixing, and mastic asphalt laying (a mixture of bitumen, fine aggregates, and limestone filler at high temperatures to make it waterproof), bituminous concrete (BC) on a flyover deck slab, flyover deck electrical pole fixing and lighting, and anti-carbonation, a specialized protective system applied to concrete and reinforced cement concrete (RCC) flyovers, bridges, the flyover structure and lane marking and road signage fixing are yet to commence.
The project has been estimated at Rs 207.81 crore. So far, Rs 130.36 crore has been spent. Referring to the prolonged delay, Nitin Sheshadri from Koramangala 3rd Block Resident Welfare Association said the flyover may not be ready by the end of 2026. It may be ready by February next.
Works on the project began on May 4, 2017 under Simplex Infrastructure with a deadline of November 4, 2019, but it was halted that year when the agency withdrew over non-payment, leading to the contract’s termination.
The project was re-tendered in November 2023 and awarded to BSCPL Infrastructure Limited, which resumed work in 2024 with a revised deadline of March 2026, and the GBA has now set October 2026 as the deadline with that too gone.