New Delhi: After much delay, construction of swanky new headquarters for Delhi Police in the heart of the national capital is likely to begin soon as the project has got almost all environmental and height-related clearances.
The 18-storey complex, which will come up at Jai Singh Marg behind the Parliament Street Police Station near Connaught Place, will have state-of-the-art facilities including modern communication systems and security apparatus.
"Construction work will begin soon as we have got all the necessary clearances. There are only some minor things to sort out like the fire department has asked to make some design-related changes for the stairs. As soon as these things are put in order, work will begin," a senior police official said.
Once the office-cum-residential complex is complete, the space crunch faced by the Delhi Police at its current office at ITO will be a thing of the past. Several units which currently function from different locations will be accommodated in the same building which would ensure better coordination and also reduce transport cost, he said.
The ambitious project, which was initially supposed to be completed by the first quarter of 2015, has already been delayed at least twice due to delay in clearances.
In fact, the then Home Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde had skipped the foundation stone-laying ceremony on July 26 last year citing inadequacy in the documentation of the project.
As Shinde did not turn up, the foundation stone-laying event was converted into a 'bhoomi pujan'.
The function was held days before the then Delhi Police Commissioner Neeraj Kumar retired on July 31. The project is said to be Kumar's brainchild as it was initiated in the days when he was Special Commissioner in Delhi Police.
The event was held after the Delhi Police had got a go-ahead from NDMC to start demolition work of the old structure. The new building has to be build at a cost of Rs 1,095 crore under Public-Private Partnership (PPP) model in 840 days. The contract for the new building has been awarded to Unity Infraprojects Ltd, which is a Mumbai-based firm.
The deadline of 840 days will begin from the day construction starts on the site.
