Access road to JMP still stuck

LUCKNOW: The plan to develop a direct access road to the sprawling Janeshwar Mishra Park (JMP) continues to remain in a limbo, thanks to the delay by Northern Railway authorities to build the connecting underpass.

With just four months remaining to the December deadline set by chief minister Akhilesh Yadav to complete the road, the housing department has sent an SOS to the NR brass in New Delhi to remove the hurdle.

In a letter to NR general manager, principal secretary Sada Kant has drawn his attention towards the delay in starting work on the underpass in ques- tion near Dilkusha-Barabanki railway track in Gomti Nagar.

“Almost 70% work on the new road providing direct access to JMP has been completed. The NR authorities had demanded ` 62.40 lakh for drawing and design of the underpass concerned. The money has been made available. The UP Bridge Corporation submitted the approved drawing of the underpass on June 30, 2015 but till date work has not commenced,” said the principal secretary.

The state government had sanctioned ` 39 crore for developing this exclusive road to JMP in Gomti Nagar. Of this, ` 29 crore was spent on building the new road and ` 9.60 crore was earmarked for building the underpass-link. “The idea was not only to provide a traffic-free road but also to reduce the distance between the VIP localities and the JMP,” said an official associated with the project.