Castles in the air? AMC plans 10 flyovers in 1 yr

If all goes according to Ahmedabad Municipal corporation’s plans, traffic bottlenecks will soon be a thing of the past. The AMC on Monday unveiled an ambitious plan: that of constructing 10 flyovers in the next 12 months.

There’s more. This won’t be one of those plans that take forever to implement as all flyovers will be constructed by the turn key concept—private parties will take up design, planning and execution of the Rs 50-crore project. The party that gets the contract will be responsible for designing, procuring materials, planning, construction, lighting and all other facilities.

The flyovers will ease the traffic congestion problem to a large extent. ‘‘At all these 10 spots, even the presence of traffic signals has not helped,’’ said Deputy Municipal Commissioner P A Dixit, when asked what criteria were used to identify the sites.

Mayor Himmatsingh Patel ruled out any delay, saying that the latest technology will be used to construct the flyovers. ‘‘The components of the flyover will be made at some other place and then transported to the site. This will reduce delays considerably,’’ he said.

The civic body will finance the construction with funds raised through the Rs 100-crore tax-free bonds that have already been floated. Municipal Commissioner P Panneervel said this is the most feasible way the AMC has to provide infrastructure facilities. ‘‘The AMC will save up to 40 per cent if funds from tax-free bonds are used instead of taking loans,’’ he said.

Rs 49-crore bonds have already been allotted for installing water supply and sewerage lines in the city. The remaining amount, Panneervel said, will be used for the flyovers.

The AMC has already invited tenders from private parties. The Mayor said advertisements have been released in all major newspapers and that the cost of inviting tenders itself is Rs 15 lakh. The AMC has also made provisions for people to bid on the AMC website.

Four of the ten proposed flyovers will come up on the Naroda-Narol bypass highway on the eastern part of the city. Two others have been planned on the Ashram Road.

The remaining four are planned at Usmanpura, Jamalpur, Shreyas crossing area and Kalupur. DyMC Dixit said the turn key concept has worked successfully in states like Maharashtra, where flyovers have been constructed in a short span of time. ‘‘Since it is a national bid, the AMC will give the projects to the best qualified and efficient persons,’’ he stated.

When asked about repayment, Panneervel said this is the cheapest option available for the AMC and the civic body cannot wait until it could finance infrastructure projects without using bond funds or loans.

‘‘In fact, injecting money into construction activity will increase AMC revenue in the form of octroi and property tax,’’ he said.

The recently floated tax-free bonds will probably be the last tax-free bonds used for financing infrastructure projects as the Centre has not made this provision in the next Budget.

Republished from Indian Express