It is bumpy ride for road projects

<div class="section1"><div class="Normal"><span style="" font-family:="" arial="" font-size:="">BANGALORE: Things get worse before they get better.</span><br /><br /><span style="" font-family:="" arial="" font-size:="">Work on the flyover and underpass projects has been going on for over a year but with no definitive signs of meeting deadlines. And the busy junctions where these projects have been taken up are a traffic nightmare, a maze of roads that leads you nowhere.</span><br /><span style="" font-family:="" arial="" font-size:="">The BCC and BDA are currently tasked with four flyovers, an underpass and a pedestrian subway.But these are bogged down in endless inter-department squabbles, shifting of utilities, project redesigning, cost escalation, change in construction pattern and the recent elections.</span><br /><br /><span style="" font-family:="" arial="" font-size:="">For instance, the BDA started its three flyovers — at the intersection of Airport Road and Intermediate Ring Road; Dairy Circle; and on Bannerghatta Road — in February 2003 and was to have completed them by April 2004. Now, the deadline has been revised to March 2005.</span><br /><br /><span style="" font-family:="" arial="" font-size:="">BDA engineer-member C R Ramesh said the authorities faced several problems once the work began — be it shifting of utilities which took longer time or redesigning the Bannerghatta flyover because of the high water table in the area.</span><br /><br /><span style="" font-family:="" arial="" font-size:="">"The soil conditions are poor on Bannerghatta Road. The project is an integrated flyover with a loop and an underpass and the high water table is obstructing the construction of underpass. Hence, we are redesigning it."</span><br /><br /></div> </div><div class="section2"><div class="Normal"><br /><br /><span style="" font-family:="" arial="" font-size:="">The rise in steel price too caused delay; the contractors found it difficult to mobilise additional funds and now the BDA is lending advances to hasten the process.</span><br /><br /><span style="" font-family:="" arial="" font-size:="">Another problem is feud within the UP Bridges'' Corporation, which is executing the three flyovers. Officials said: "The chief engineer in the Corporation is replaced frequently and internal bickering are affecting the progress of work. Though the BDA commissioner has convened meetings with the higher-ups in the organisation, the matter has not seen any improvement."</span><br /><br /><span style="" font-family:="" arial="" font-size:="">Similarly, work on the controversial National College flyover is moving at a snail''s pace, thanks to the elections and widespread protests. Work on the Rajajinagar underpass gathered momentum only after the BCC could acquire a chunk of land belonging to a private textile mill. The project is slated for completion by November.</span><br /><br /><span style="" font-family:="" arial="" font-size:="">A small correction: Things don''t get better any sooner than they get worse; they remain worse longer than the city can endure.</span></div> </div>