If your daily commute involves travelling through the Porur junction, it might be wiser to change routes. With work on the Porur flyover stuck in limbo for over a year, it has emerged that it might well take two more years to be completed, courtesy a deadlock between Metro Water and the State Highways department.
The Metro Water pipelines, running right under the area where the flyover is to be constructed, are the main reason for the delay.
Of the three pipes bringing drinking water from Chembarambakkam lake to nearby areas, only one has been shifted so far. The other two, caught up in the tedious bureaucracy of the tender process, are still waiting to be re-routed.
The `34.72-crore flyover project began in April 2012, but only four out of the 14 columns have been built till now.
“We paid Metro Water somewhere around `6.25 crore for shifting the pipes. Only if they shift the pipelines, can we continue our work,” said a State Highways official. The roads leading to the junction are in a terrible condition, making life more miserable for motorists.
Metro Water sources said that two tenders had been floated already, but the sums quoted were too high. The third tender, which was floated recently, might not see the daylight either, the sources added. “They too quoted a really high margin, so we’ve decided to hold a fresh process, but it’s not official yet.” A delayed land acquisition caused a further delay. “By the time the highways department gave it to us, the tender had expired,” said a Metro Water official.
Highway Department officials, however, said that half of the land was given to Metro Water last year. “And we gave the rest of the land eight months ago,” said an assistant engineer from the State Highways Department. Officials said that the new tender process would take at least two months and the re-laying will take six months after that. Totally, it would take at least two years for works to be carried out, give or take a few months.
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