Construction for the project began in October 2006  with a 15-month deadline stipulated but the project is now way behind meeting it.

The Rs  20.83-crore project had been approved under the Centre’s Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM). Elaborating on the reasons for the delay to Metrolife, Engineer-in-Chief, BBMP, A K Gopalaswamy said that heavy rains as well as delay in acquiring the alloted land for the project were responsible for the delay.

“We have now got permission from the government to carry out construction activities on the land where 45 properties (private) were located. Notification has already been issued in this connection and we will get the land within three to four months,” he said.

A rather tough segment of the project involves the completion of a bridge over a huge stormwater drain near the temple. “Heavy rains caused the drains to overflow and this  hampered construction work in a big way,” Gopalaswamy said.

Machines conking off

Filing work, which in layman terms refers to the erection of foundation structures, could not be carried on as the machines frequently got into a state of disrepair. Of the eight rig machines used by the contractors, only four are functioning presently.  “The maximum time it would take us to complete it would be June next year,”the Engineer-in-Chief  said.

However, a source  requesting anonymity told this reporter  that the project was likely to be completed only the end of next year. “We have to complete 114 file foundations and we have just completed 44 as on date,” he said. “A major reason for the machines conking off is that usually the file foundation’s diameter touches 60 cm and reaches 90 cm as the maximum. But the diameter for each of these foundations touches 120 cm. This puts immense strain on the machines causing them to wear off.”

Flyover details

The top  of the flyover will run to a length of 240 metres with a 5-lane unidirectional traffic. Apart from four ramps, the flyover will have an additional loop connecting KSRTC satellite bus  station  near Kavika. Three of these ramps will each have three lanes to permit unidirectional traffic—the 150m lengthy ramp connecting Mysore Road–Chord Road,  the 135m (length) one linking Vijayanagar and the ramp ttowards the City.  Towards Mysore, it would be a 2-lane ramp. The loop to KSRTC satellite bus stand would have a length of 475m.

The project has been contracted to National Projects Construction Corporation Limited (NPCCC Ltd) which has subcontracted it to URC Construction, Erode.  On  completion of the project, a one-way would be introduced from Gali Anjaneyaswamy temple upto the KIMCO junction and this would ease traffic congestion in a huge way,  the Engineer-in-Chief said.