Chandigarh: Tribune Flyover ready for take-off after clearing ₹240-cr cost hurdle
₹ 137 crore in 2019, the project's cost has now escalated to
₹ 240 crore — a 75% bump over six years. (HT File)
The ministry is expected to formally approve the estimate within a month, clearing the way for construction to begin.
A meeting between officials from the UT engineering department and the ministry was held in Delhi on Friday, where it was conveyed that the revised cost will be approved soon.
Originally estimated at ₹137 crore in 2019, the project's cost has now escalated to ₹240 crore — a 75% bump over six years.
UT chief engineer CB Ojha, who attended the meeting, confirmed the development. 'The ministry asked us to reduce the cost by around ₹1 crore, which we have done. Once we receive the formal approval, the project will be executed,' he said.
The flyover is being touted as a solution to the traffic mess in the vicinity of the busy Tribune Chowk. More than 1.43 lakh vehicles, including 1.35 lakh passenger car units (PCUs) cross Tribune Chowk — the rotary on the intersection of Dakshin Marg and Purva Marg — on a daily basis, as per original traffic projections.
The proposed 1.6-km-long flyover will stretch from near the GMCH-32 roundabout to the railway overbridge on Dakshin Marg, passing over Tribune Chowk.
Initially, the UT administration had planned a 7-km flyover, which the Centre later scaled down to 3.5 km and subsequently to 1.6 km.
Since its inception in 2019, the project has faced repeated delays.
The foundation stone was laid on March 3, 2019, by then UT administrator VP Singh Badnore. However, work was stalled in November 2019 after the Punjab and Haryana high court imposed a stay on tree cutting along the proposed route.
The stay was lifted in May last year, after which the UT engineering department submitted a revised cost estimate of ₹240 crore in March this year.
The estimate is based on the updated Schedule of Rates (SOR). The ministry had earlier issued a stern letter in January, pulling up the administration over the prolonged delay in submitting the revised figures.
In March this year, Chandigarh member of Parliament Manish Tewari raised the issue in the Lok Sabha, following which the Union minister for road transport and highways Nitin Gadkari clarified that a revised project report and estimate were in progress after lifting of stay order, considering the substantial time gap since the project's initial approval.
The high court, while lifting the stay in May 2024, had underscored the project's urgency. 'The need is to ease traffic in such situations rather than obstruct development. The stay has set Chandigarh back by a decade,' the court had noted. It also highlighted that vehicles coming from Delhi and Dera Bassi into Chandigarh were facing delays of up to 90 minutes due to chronic congestion at the junction.
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