Commuters’ wait for the Sarita Vihar underpass for seamless travel between Kalindi Kunj and Okhla Industrial Area has to continue. Despite missing several deadlines and massive cost escalation, the underpass is far from being operational and thus leaving the commuters at the receiving end. The project, being jointly executed by DDA and the Northern Railways, is expected to be ready by August this year. Once operational, the underpass would reduce the distance between Kalindi Kunj and Okhla Industrial Area to merely one kilometre from the existing 9 km route. Ideated in the year 2008, the project missed several deadlines and was scheduled to be completed by December 2013.
The road under bridge (RUB) that passes under the Delhi-Mumbai rail lines has been constructed by the Railways while the remaining portion of the project which includes the approach roads has to be constructed by the DDA. However, the DDA had stalled its share of work citing technical issues. On the other hand, the Railway officials claimed the RUB is complete and awaiting construction of approach roads on both ends. “We were responsible for constructing the RUB as this portion of land belonged to the Railways. The RUB has been completed and now DDA has to construct the approach roads,” said Neeraj Sharma, Chief spokesperson for the Northern Railways.
Delay in construction work has spelt woes for the commuters. Not only are the motorists forced to jostle with heavy traffic on the existing route; they are also subject to congestion at Sarita Vihar particularly during the peak hours. Daily commuters said the construction work has caused chaos in the area and there is no hope for early redressal of the problem. Since the project started, its design has been changed many times. Thought conceived in 2008, the actual work could start only in 2009 and the initial cost of the project has also more than doubled from Rs 127 crore to nearly Rs 300 crore.
The DDA on the other hand sought to blame the railways for delays saying it had to stall its work owing to delay in completion of the RUB. It, however, said the work would be expedited now and the stretch will be opened for public by August. “The DDA had to stop the work as the Railways took longer to complete its work. A fair amount of time lapsed in obtaining permission for a new technology that the railways had adopted for constructing the RUB. Now since the RUB is ready, we have restarted the work and we are hopeful the complete it by August,” said Neemo Dhar, Advisor (PR) in DDA.
The project will connect Okhla Industrial Area with Kalindi Kunj in Noida which is not only fuel-efficient but is likely to reduce the travelling time of motorists. This will save motorists at least eight kilometres while commuting in both directions. “While eight lanes of the underpass — four lanes on each carriageway, will be used by heavy vehicles, there will be a dedicated cycle track that can also be used by other non-motorised vehicles,” officials said.
Railway officials said constructing the RUB was a big engineering challenge. The RUB has been constructed under seven running tracks on Delhi-Mumbai rail section with disrupting train movements. To achieve the feat, the railways adopted an advance technique of box pushing, which ensures uninterrupted flow of rail traffic throughout the construction period.
“In this technique, the entire length of reinforced concrete box is divided into segments. The segments are precast over a horizontal concrete thrust bed, adjacent to railway embankment. The boxes are then pushed into the embankment one after another using hydraulic force created by jacks,” a senior official said this underpass is one of the largest in India being executed using this method. According to Northern Railway officials, the underpass crosses the Delhi-Mumbai rail route, which is one of the busiest rail lines in India with more than 300 trains passing through the stretch daily.