Delhi: Covid, construction ban delay Nehru Palace’s redevelopment
NEW DELHI: Delhiites will have to wait for the New Year to get a glimpse of a new-look Nehru
Place. The work for the redevelopment of the Nehru Place District Centre was started in 2019
by the Delhi Development Authority (DDA) and was expected to be completed by mid-2022, but
due to delays, the target deadline has now shifted to January next year.
The upgrade of the commercial complex, which has emerged as the country’s biggest computer
goods market in the last few decades, is being carried out at a major scale and the most striking
centrepiece of this revamp project is going to be a skywalk, which will directly connect the
concourse level of the nearby Nehru Place metro station with the complex. Other features of the
project also include a multi-level parking lot.
“The target date of completion for upgrade of Nehru Place is January 31, 2023, and the target
date of completion of the multi-level car parking is June 30, 2023,” a senior DDA official said.
“Upgrade of internal roads by using high-strength cement concrete paver blocks is in progress
and the overall internal road work near shops and the marketplace in Nehru Place will be
completed by January 2023,” he said.
While the overall upgrade work was started by DDA in December 2019 after getting a noobjection certificate from the South Delhi Municipal Corporation, the skywalk started taking
shape only earlier this year. “Several reasons, including the construction ban due to Covid-19,
curbs by the National Green Tribunal on construction activities in Delhi, etc., caused the delay in
work,” he said.
The
skywalk will connect the concourse area of the metro station with the Central Plaza near Satyam
Cinema, according to officials. Once complete, commuters won’t need to climb down from the
elevated station and cross the busy Astha Kunj Road to reach the Nehru Place District Centre.
At the Nehru Place end of the skywalk, they would be able to get down using an elevator and
staircase.
The official said that a Reinforced Cement Concrete (RCC) structure for the elevator and the
staircase of the skywalk was now complete. The work on pedestals, a compressed supporting
structure, for the pillars of the skywalk was in progress, he said. “Footing work (foundation) for
basement columns and retaining wall for multi-level car parking is in progress,” he said, adding
that construction waste was removed from the site regularly so that visitors faced no problem.
Built by DDA in 1972 and spread over nearly 94.4 acre, the Nehru Place complex had a total 89
buildings and was handed over to SDMC for its further maintenance about 30 years ago. Due to
the overall dilapidated condition of the complex, DDA had started the work for its renovation.
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