A month after its inauguration, Public Works Department (PWD) officials and workers are continuing their futile efforts to rid the Ambedkar Flyover of flaws that point towards negligence in the design and construction phases of the mega project.
Construction workers were seen conducting patchwork on the sides of the flyover on Wednesday, a month after the ambitious multi-crore project was opened amid great fanfare, after years of delays.
Tired of defending the badly designed elevated road, PWD officials are now beginning to admit that the design of the flyover has flaws that are leading to traffic melees, especially at the Shaheed Smarak end of the road.
Though speaking on the condition of anonymity, the acceptance of shortcomings in the design lends huge credence to reporting by The Pioneer, which was the first newspaper to point out the flaws in the project blueprint.
Parts of the flanks of the flyover remain pitch dark, especially as the shadows from the retaining abutment walls towards the ends of the flyover worsen visibility for commuters taking the road beneath the structure.
While ongoing work on the flyover, where PWD workers are laying concrete mortar towards the kerbside, suggests a move to improve water drainage from the elevated road, project managers maintain that the work is only part of superficial corrections.
They say that the flyover has a well-designed water drainage system that runs along the piers (pillars) supporting the structure.
With only months to go before the onset of the monsoons, civil engineers warn that this may be the last chance to correct any flaws in the water drainage systems, as a failure to do so could result in massive waterlogging in the area, with the mega structure acting as a catchment for rainwater.
They say that a 2015 National Green Tribunal (NGT) order makes it mandatory for flyovers to include water harvesting systems. The engineers also call for better coordination between the PWD and the Bhopal Municipal Corporation (BMC) to ensure sufficient drainage systems for the massive gushes of rainwater during the monsoon months.
Meanwhile, motorists taking the road say that the flyover continues to remain an uncomfortable ride due to its uneven surface, resulting in traffic bottlenecks that defeat the very purpose of the project, which was initially designed to decongest vehicular movement in the MP Nagar area.
They rue the unsanitary conditions, with gutkha stains already starting to appear on the margins of the mega-crore project, which stakeholders had touted as a gamechanger for the city.
The promises had sent aspirations skyrocketing in the commercial district of MP Nagar, where traders are now beginning to question the viability of the mega expenditure that has turned its main arterial road into a badly lit tunnel of metro and flyover pillars. Responding to the criticism, key officials at the PWD say they took over the project years after its inception, which was approved by their predecessors in the pre-Covid era, many of whom have since retired.