Dy CM visits Signature Bridge site, promises weekly visits to speed up completion

Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia today inspected work on the much awaited Signature Bridge on the Yamuna river and promised to pay weekly visits at the site to speed up its completion.

Construction of the bridge has been delayed, but once completed it will save travel time of millions of north east Delhi residents and serve as a "crown" of Delhi tourism, he said.

Last month, the CPWD had endorsed an additional estimate of around Rs 231 crore of the DTTDC, raising hopes of its speedy completion.

The Delhi government's Public Works department (PWD) had sought the Central Public Works Department(CPWD) "expert opinion" after the Delhi Tourism and Transportation Development Corporation (DTTDC) had submitted a revised estimate of Rs 1,575 crore for the bridge.

Last month, the Delhi High Court had pulled up the PWD and the DTTDC for "quibbling over" the amount to be paid for construction of the "long overdue" bridge.

The bridge, once completed, will share the burden of vehicular traffic, currently being borne by the Wazirabad bridge, used to commute to and from Delhi and Ghaziabad.

The bridge will connect the Outer Ring Road on the western bank with the Wazirabad Road on the eastern side of the Yamuna.

Announced in 2004, the project received the Delhi cabinet's nod in 2007 and it was initially expected to be completed at a modified estimate of Rs 1,131 crore before the Commonwealth Games, which were held here in October, 2010.

The bridge had obtained environmental clearance in 2011 and was set to be completed by December 2013.

The date of completing project was pushed to June 2016 and then to July 2017, which was further pushed to December 2017.