He said the Centre should immediately construct the 60km stretch of road from Bomten village to the last border post at Chaglagam in Anjaw district.

A BJP team led by Tagak went for a trip to Lohit and Anjaw districts on October 19 to honour Indian soldiers who had laid their lives in the Walong sector during the 1962 Sino-Indian War as part of the party’s Shahid Shradhanjali Yatra.

“We are demanding that the state government construct a war memorial in Itanagar in honour and recognition of the 1,600 soldiers who lost their lives during the Chinese aggression in the Walong sector,” Tagak said.

The team also trekked several kilometers to visit the last Indian village of Kahoo in Anjaw district and collected farming tools from villagers for BJP Prime Ministerial candidate Narendra Modi’s dream project to construct a statue of the Iron Man of India, Sardar Ballabhai Patel, in Gujarat.

“The statue to be named as the Statue of Unity would be the world’s tallest statue after the Statue of Liberty,” Tagak said.

The team, while interacting with the villagers, came across several loopholes in projects being implemented in the border areas of both the districts, including supply of essentials under the public distribution system, Tagak added.

The party demanded proper augmentation and overhaul of health and education sectors along the borders.

“The operator is receiving money but not accounting (it). We found that the handheld devices with which they collect toll during peak hours are not connected to the main server for escrow accounts. Same is the case with extra toll booths they set up. This money was not accounted for,” senior advocate Sandeep Sethi, representing NHAI, claimed before Justice Manmohan Singh.

Sethi said once the survey findings were filed in HC and a show cause notice on underreporting of traffic issued to the private operator,Delhi-Gurgaon Super Connectivity Ltd (DGSCL), “our revenue for September, collected in October, increased by Rs 60 lakh.”

The KPMG survey, which has been refuted by DGSCL, had claimed underreporting of vehicles causing a daily revenue leakage to the tune of Rs 15.58 lakh during August 2012 and July 2013.

When Justice Singh asked if the authority was open to “finding a cure” to the dispute if, for arguments sake, the operator was willing to refund the amount allegedly siphoned, Sethi replied in the negative. “All that is now history. We can’t repose our faith in the operator. We have learnt from our mistakes,” the counsel said, making it clear that NHAI was not interested in a settlement with the firm.

On being further prodded by the court, the counsel claimed despite interventions by various authorities, commuters continue to suffer as DGSCL has not implemented reforms nor is it trying to improve traffic flow. Answering the court’s apprehension on the future of the toll plaza if it sanctions termination of the contract, NHAI indicated it will operate it till it finds a suitable replacement. The court will hear DGSCL’s defence on Friday.

“We have strongly refuted the KPMG survey findings and would take this up in the court as well in the next hearing,” the DGSCL spokesperson said. “The survey was done manually which is prone to human error and did not employ scientific and automated vehicle classification and counting (AVCC) system as stipulated in the concession agreement and neither did it correctly account for exemptions and run-throughs of traffic.”

Regarding the variation of toll revenues across months, the spokesperson said traffic volumes and revenues in the festive months of September and October were always higher than the holiday and monsoon months of July and August.

Flyovers at Thanisandra, BEL Circle

The Outer Ring Road, designed to give Bangaloreans a free ride along the suburbs, is five years old and nowhere near completion. The massive project – a series of 10 connected flyovers, three underpasses and two railway bridges on a total stretch of 13.4km — has only created a multitude of problems. In the past five years, the only reality has been traffic bottlenecks, broken roads and dust pollution.

The Rs 292-crore project, implemented by the BDA, is meant to connect HSR Layout 14th Main, Agara, Iblur, Bellandur, Devarabeesanahalli, Kadubeesanahalli, Mahadevapura, Kalyan Nagar, Hennur, Veerannapalya and BEL Circle. Work started in mid-2009 and each flyover was to be done in 24 months. But most flyovers took three years.

The ones at Thanisandra and BEL Circle junctions are still unfinished. At Thanisandra, two high-tension lines parallel to the flyover and shifting of utilities is delaying the project. At BEL Circle, the road is half-dug. A PSU has refused to part with land to widen the road, say sources.

Vehicles used to move inch by inch on these roads when the flyovers were being constructed. This was also one reason why initiatives like travelling by bus and car pooling gained momentum among techie groups.

Vishwanath Seetharam | Member, outer ring road companies association

Start: Mid-2009

Timeline: 24 months

Status: Work going on

Mysore Road widening

It’s just 2 km from Sirsi Circle to Gali Anjaneya Temple. Work to widen this road stretch began in August 2009, and four years later, is yet to touch the finish line.

Like many other infrastructure projects, BBMP took up the project without acquiring land. Now, it is yet to acquire three properties and is grounded outside a Christian cemetery, whose authorities have declined to part with their land. Said a BBMP engineer, “Burial ground authorities have asked for alternative land. The process of finding alternative land is going on.”

The project was to be completed in 15 months. Now, the BBMP assures it will be done in a month. When started, the project cost was pegged at Rs 9 crore; the BBMP hasn’t yet calculated the cost escalation.

Construction debris litters the stretch at several places. It’s very difficult to travel on this dusty road in the mornings and evenings, when vehicular movement is heavy.

Lokesh M | Sales executive

Start: Aug 2009

Timeline: 15 months

Status: Ready next month

MSRTC officials here said that the new terminus would not only help reduce overcrowding of buses at the Shivajinagar terminus, but would also curb traffic congestion on roads adjacent to the terminus. The move will also benefit passengers in Sangvi, Pashan and Aundh, as it will cut down on travel time up to Shivajinagar to catch a bus.

In the initial stage, 36 buses to various cities in north Maharashtra, Konkan, Marathwada and Vidarbha will depart from the Sangvi terminus.

At present, the MSRTC operates buses from the Swargate, Shivajinagar, Pune station and Pimpri terminuses. Swargate has the largest daily operations, followed by Shivajinagar, Pimpri and Pune station.

A senior official from the MSRTC’s Pune division said, “We expect to start daily bus operations from the Sangvi terminus from October 20. Buses will have enough space for parking during night hours. As many as 36 buses will depart from here every day. We will provide platforms and passenger amenities such as sheds, toilets and a waiting lounge. Of the 36 trips, 34 bus trips currently leave from Shivajinagar and Pune station and will be shifted to Sangvi. Operations here will be increased depending on the initial response,” the official said.

The MSRTC also plans to start an advance booking facility for buses departing from the Sangvi terminus.

The official said shifting a part of the operations from Shivajinagar and Pune station was necessary; bus operations at both the stands had reached a critical level due to the increase in the number of trips and lack of space for further expansion. Many a times, buses have to be parked on roads, as drivers do not find space inside the terminus and depot, he said.

Sources said that the city traffic police department has written to the MSRTC administration to shift movement of some buses to the outskirts to ease traffic on city roads. The MSRTC official said that starting the new terminus in the outskirts was part of a plan to reduce the traffic burden in the city.