Lieutenant Governor (L-G) V.K. Saxena on Tuesday ordered an Anti Corruption Branch (ACB) probe into the "extraordinary delays", cost escalations, and arbitration payouts plaguing the Barapullah Phase-III elevated road project, originally sanctioned at ₹1,260 crore.
The project, linking Sarai Kale Khan to Mayur Vihar Phase-III, remains unfinished eight years after its 2017 deadline, with arbitration claims touching ₹760 crore, according to a statement from the L-G's office. The L-G has directed the ACB to examine the role of Ministers, senior Public Works Department (PWD) officials, and other agencies in the project's delay.
"This prolonged delay has resulted in cost overruns running into hundreds of crores, including arbitration penalties paid to the contractor," the statement said. The probe follows a recommendation from Chief Minister Rekha Gupta, who raised the issue during a meeting of the Expenditure Finance Committee (EFC) in July.
Conceived in 2011 and awarded to Larsen & Toubro (L&T), the 6.2-kilometre corridor was intended to ease traffic across the Yamuna but has been stuck for years. A PWD inquiry committee formed in November 2023 had blamed land acquisition and forest clearances for the delay, but Mr. Saxena rejected it as "inadequate".
"A project manager has the primary responsibility to ensure that construction proceeds as per schedule and all regulatory clearances are secured," Mr. Saxena said, directing that accountability be fixed across departments.
Financial losses
Multiple arbitration awards have compounded the project's cost overruns in favour of the contractor. Of the ₹760 crore claimed, ₹255 crore has already been paid. In one major case, an award of ₹121.95 crore plus interest and GST in May 2023 was not honoured in time, prompting L&T to move the Delhi High Court, which attached three PWD accounts and ordered a payment of ₹170 crore.
After years of delays, PWD Minister Parvesh Sahib Singh has now set an eight-month deadline to finish the remaining work and open the corridor by mid-2026. The L-G questioned the policy framework that enables contractors to raise "exorbitant arbitration claims even when at fault". Drawing parallels with the Bharat Mandapam underpass project, also executed by L&T, Mr. Saxena said similar inflated claims had emerged despite "glaring engineering defects that risked national embarrassment ahead of the G20 Summit".