With two weeks to go for the Republic Day Parade on the Rajpath, Union Housing and Urban Affairs Minister Hardeep Singh Puri on Tuesday said last week’s rainfall had cost the Central Vista Avenue redevelopment project a couple of days.
The revamp of the Avenue, which was started in February 2021, has come down to the wire, as preparations for the parade are under way. On January 8, Delhi received the highest amount of rainfall for a day in the month in at least a decade.
Mr. Puri was speaking during a briefing on the Ministry’s month-long programme to mark Azadi ka Amrit Mahotsav, the government-wide celebration of the 75th year of Independence, when he said the programme would culminate at an event in Surat on February 4 and February 5 “hopefully”.
“I use the word hopefully because we plan but we got the highest amount of rainfall that any day in January has witnessed in the last many years and I think my Central Vista Avenue expansion programme has probably lost a day or two, but not more.”
He then went on to speak about the “Smart Cities, Smart Urbanisation” grand finale event in Surat, which would be held in-person if the COVID-19 situation permitted.
This isn’t the first time that rainfall has caused delay in the project. In September 2021, Mr. Puri had visited the site and tweeted that more workers were being deployed to compensate for the time lost due to rains.
