Work orders of infrastructure projects on hold in Ghaziabad till elections are over

With the model code of conduct for the upcoming general elections having being put in place on Sunday, several projects of the Ghaziabad development authority (GDA) will have to wait till the polling process gets over. Officials said that work orders for projects in the pipeline will not be issued till elections get over.

Officials said decisions on projects such as the second elevated road and extension of the Hindon elevated road, among others, will be put on hold till poll results are out. There are several other infrastructure projects for which tenders have been floated but release of work orders is awaited.

“We will not be issuing work orders for even those projects where tenders have been floated. These include the northern peripheral road (NPR) and the integrated traffic management system (ITMS). The tenders were floated for these projects but the work orders will be on hold till the elections get over. We will also not be taking any financial decision on the extension of 10.3km Hindon elevated road,” Kanchan Verma, authority’s vice chairperson, said.

The Prime Minister, during his visit to Ghaziabad last week, had laid the foundation stone for the NPR and the ITMS projects, besides a few others.

“Work orders for the rail over-bridge, proposed to connect Madhuban Bapudham to Delhi-Meerut Road, were already issued. Discussions on the funding proposals for the Phase 3 Metro can be taken at the government level, but we are yet to receive the detailed project report from the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC),” Verma said.

Passenger operations on the 9.6km project were started on March 9 after the project was inaugurated by the PM last week. The authority has proposed Phase 3 of the Metro project and plans to connect Noida’s Sector-62 Metro to Ghaziabad’s Mohan Nagar.

For this purpose, the authority has received an initial project report from the DMRC and has asked them to revise the project route with termination point at Mohan Nagar instead of the previously proposed Sahibabad.

“Once the elections get over, we will be taking up the Phase 3 of Metro on a priority basis,” Verma said.

According to the announcement of the election schedule, Ghaziabad district is scheduled to go to polls on April 11 while the counting will take place on May 23, along with other parliamentary constituencies in the country.