Ahmedabad's BRTS delayed

For the multicrore-rupee BRTS project, a meaningless conflict between the political and executive wings of the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation (AMC) concerning the design of the AEC flyover has led to a further three-month delay in commissioning of the BRTS services. This despite the fact that the central JNNURM monitoring committee had approved the AEC flyover design. The BRTS project for the first 12.5 kilometres on the RTO-Pirana route was to start by December, but now AMC officials say that project would not be operationalised before March next year owing to the delay. AMC planners are already thinking of providing alternative diversions of 500 metres near AEC flyover for the BRTS buses to keep to their December deadline. The conflict was over connecting the Helmet and AEC flyovers, which are just 700 metres apart. The central JNNURM committee had approved designs for Helmet and AEC flyovers individually in February last year. While work on the Helmet flyover got delayed for three months, that of the AEC flyover was put off for six months. A senior AMC standing committee member, who refused to be quoted, admits that owing to the differences, work on AEC and Helmet flyovers were only resumed in September-October last year but were stalled immediately due to assembly elections. Work on both Helmet and AEC flyovers again resumed in March this year. “A team consisting of former AMC mayor Amit Shah and various local BJP functionaries had represented the case of connecting both flyovers before the state government contrary to the approved plans by JNNURM committee. The work was stalled and urban development minister Nitin Patel had to agree ultimately to two separate flyovers. The conflict was meaningless as JNNURM had approved designs for two separate flyovers on the BRTS route,” says a senior AMC official. The irony being that though the AMC had commissoned work for the Shivaranjini, Helmet circle and AEC flyovers simultaneously, work was completed on Helmet and Shivaranjini flyovers while AEC flyover lay in a limbo.The three flyovers were originally conceptualised by Ahmedabad Urban Development Authority (AUDA) in their 2005-06 budget. The designs were placed before the central JNNURM committee for approval. “The AEC flyover was a little behind schedule already as there were encroachments on the roadside and since the whole road leading to the flyover was to be re-aligned, it took time. The row, however, compounded our problems,” adds the official.