NEW DELHI: Over 50 semi-skilled labourers are working day and night to build a Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) bridge over the Yamuna. Work on the `50 crore project began over three months ago, and hard-hatted workers have been welding metal, digging holes 50 metres deep into the river bed, and preparing the foundation for supporting piers of the bridge. The south-Delhi based construction company awarded the contract, is keen to complete the project within the stipulated 15 months. What they don’t know is that the DMRC has not got clearance from the DDA, Delhi Urban Arts Commission or the Central government-appointed Yamuna Standing Committee for the project.
A DMRC official on condition of anonymity told the Sunday Standard, “We are awaiting clearance from the Yamuna Standing Committee, but in the mean time, the contract for work on the bridge has been awarded, and the company has begun preparatory work.” The source reasoned that wait for clearances would delay the project, and therefore the work has been started.
Work is underway right in the middle of the water. Mud is being removed from the riverbed at a rapid pace. The site is downstream of the Nizamuddin bridge, and is accessible via a dirt track just before the bridge begins on the Mayur Vihar side. Even to layman’s inexperienced eye, the work at site cannot simply be dismissed as preparatory. One wonders what will happen to the public money already spent, in case the Yamuna Standing Committee does not clear the project.
DMRC cites its strict timelines to justify asking the construction company to begin work on the rail bridge from Yamuna Vihar in Delhi’s north-east, to Mukundpur, as part of the Phase III of the Metro’s development. A visit to the site by Sunday Standard revealed that 16 support piers were being made, and for those, 50 metres deep holes were being dug into the riverbed to lay their foundation. A rent of `1.5 lakh per month is being paid for the crane which is placing the iron girders in place.
Meanwhile, the DDA, which owns the land on the riverbed, has demarcated it as zone ‘O’. According to the DDA, the particular section, over which the new Metro bridge will run, is part of sub-zone 7 of zone ‘O’, and its land-use is marked ‘river and water body and recreational’. The DDA has also made it clear that no planning permission has been given by the planning wing of Zone ‘E’ and ‘O’, for the proposed bridge cum-road, which is part of the Mukandpur-Yamuna Vihar corridor, 83 metres downstream of the Hazrat Nizamuddin bridge. A DDA official, on condition of anonymity, said he knew of the proposed Metro bridge only unofficially. The DMRC is yet to approach the DDA for clearance.
Only time will tell if the Metro bridge will eventually join the long list of potentially environmentally damaging projects that have been forced through “since the work has already begun and public money spent”.