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Honda flyover delayed as talks to shift Oil pump fail

The deadlock over relocation of a Bharat Petroleum filling station continued on Monday, further delaying a start to the Hero Honda Chowk flyover project.

HUDA officials, a representative of the oil major and the owner of the BPCL petrol pump that falls on the land demarcated for the INR 100-crore Hero Honda Chowk flyover failed to agree on terms to relocate the petrol pump in a meeting. Another meeting between HUDA officials and BPCL has been scheduled for Tuesday.

Work on the flyover is stuck because of encroachments on both sides of the road and the NHAI, the project's builder, said that the project cannot move forward till the encroachments are removed.

HUDA administrator P C Meena said that the petrol pump's owner, Inderjit, and the representative of BPCL were happy with the site shown to them by HUDA officials.

"The owner was rather satisfied with the location and we will provide BPCL and the owner with an offer letter of the plot within a week after the NHAI completes demarcation of the plot," he said. The pump's owner, however that though the site shown to him was acceptable, HUDA and BPCL first need to sort out who will bear the cost of resetting the equipment and infrastructure which will amount to INR 50 lakh.

"The BPCL official refused to pay for setting up the new pump and told Meena that since HUDA was forcing them to relocate the pump, they would have to pay," Inderjit said. Inderjit also said that HUDA cannot demolish the petrol pump before the new one is set up as it would cause huge operational losses to him. "I will not let HUDA demolish anything until the new pump is operational, else I would lose to the tune of INR 1 lakh each day," he said.

A senior official from BPCL, he said that even if they decided to bear the expenses, setting up of the new station could take up to six months and HUDA would first need to provide certain assurances in writing.

"Our priority is that the pump operator should not become a victim of the rash decisions of the authorities. We have scheduled another meeting with the HUDA administrator on Tuesday and will try to work out a solution amicably," he said.

Source-On Request