GURGAON: With Haryana Urban Development Authority (HUDA) facing over a dozen land acquisition cases, progress of its ambitious Southern Periphery Road (SPR) has been reduced to snails pace. As part of the SPR project, the development authority plans to construct a 17-km-long road connecting Faridabad-Gurgaon stretch to National Highway-8.

Acknowledging that 14 court stay orders in different cases has slowed progress on the project, a senior HUDA official said: These cases have come in way of speeding construction activity of the SPR on the Gurgaon side of the project.

The list of litigants has names like M/s CRS Tower and several individual land owners. The 1.3-km-long problem stretch passes through areas like Sohna and connects to NH-8. The problem area in the SPR project falls on the most crucial section, which constitutes the last portion of the road. Unless the problems get resolved, the entire project will be affected, said the official.

HUDA superintending engineer R K Kakkar has written a letter to the development authoritys administrator asking him to take up the matter with higher authorities and clear the related hurdles. HUDA had given the Rs 5.09-crore contract to Unitech limited to construct road on this stretch.

The tardy pace of construction on this section has also reportedly escalated the overall cost of the project.
The completion of the SPR project is crucial for decongesting traffic gridlock on IFFCO Chowk. At present, all traffic from Faridabad comes to MG road before heading towards the IFFCO crossing. Once, the SPR is complete, it would connect Faridabad to NH-8 through the Sohna-Gurgaon road, said the HUDA official.