Marred by several delays, the traffic chaos around Ashram Chowk and the Maharani Bagh area, one of the busiest parts of the Ring Road in the national Capital, will continue for at least two more months as the Delhi Government’s Public Works Department (PWD) has now fixed November for the opening of the extension of the Ashram flyover up to Delhi-Noida Direct (DND) flyway. According to officials, the flyover will be completed by November.
The previous deadline of the project was September. Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia on Saturday conducted an on sight inspection to assess the progress of construction works. He instructed the engineers to install additional cranes and double the speed of work, so that people are relieved from vehicular traffic in area as soon as possible. The deputy chief minister said that it was a herculean task to build a flyover in middle of such a busy road but PWD engineers undertook challenge and delivered.
During the inspection, the engineers told the Sisodia that the vehicular load on this road is very high, due to which they have to face several challenges during construction.
Engineers said that all the pillars for the flyover have been erected, and now, work is ongoing to put girders on them using large cranes.The project is a six-lane, 1.42-km-long flyover that is being extended from the existing Ashram overpass to DND, with ramps for traffic from Sarai Kale Khan. Once the project is complete, it is expected to help make the 9-km stretch from Moolchand flyover till Noida’s Rajnigandha Chowk signal-free. But a series of missed deadlines have ensured that the intersection has become a traffic nightmare.
The area serves two heavy traffic streams – those travelling between the city’s south and the east (and adjacent Noida), as well as those commuting on the Mathura Road between central Delhi and the outskirts of the city towards Faridabad. The Ashram intersection, where the two streams meet, is used by 350,000 vehicles a day, according to some estimates.
The flyover extension is the second of a two-phase decongestion project: The first being an underpass at the main intersection that opened in April after missing at least seven deadlines. But traffic jams continue around Ashram Chowk since the flyover works are leading to long traffic tailbacks.
The proposal for extension of the flyover was approved by the Delhi cabinet in November 2019 and its foundation stone was laid by chief minister Arvind Kejriwal in December 2019 but work could not start due to coronavirus lockdown. The work was awarded in June 2020.