By 2019, Delhi may have three new arterial roads complete with underground and elevated stretches that will make commuting through the most congested parts of the city a breeze. The Narendra Modi Government wants to change the face of the National Capital by constructing elevated roads, underground roads, underpasses and changing the alignments of various roads.
Following the directions of Union Urban Development Minister Venkaiah Naidu, Delhi Government’s Public Works Department (PWD) has come out with a detailed report and submitted a list of 24 projects that would cost over `18,200 crores. All these projects are likely to be completed by 2019.
Sources told The Pioneer that the PWD’s list of 24 projects for easing traffic congestion in the city includes the East-West corridor starting near Anand Vihar terminal and going up to Peeragarhi, North-South corridor starting near the Signature Bridge and going up to National Highway 8, an elevated road from Najafgarh drain to Wazirabad road, connecting the Mehrauli- Badarpur road with Kalindi Kunj in Uttar Pradesh and Haryana, extension of Barapullah elevated road from INA to Dhaula Kuan and IGI Airport, tunnel roads from Nizamuddin East to Nila Gumbad, Teen Murti to IGI Airport and tunnel from the Safdarjung Road-Aurangzeb Road junction to Shantipath. These stretches will work as arterial connections within the city and will include underpasses, flyovers and elevated corridors.
To fund these mega projects, Delhi Government is exploring the possibility of getting a soft loan from Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) on the lines of Delhi Metro. In the Budget 2014-15, Delhi Government has allocated `1,040 crores for road and flyover networks. As per the proposal, if the Centre gives a green signal to State Government’s project, the Government will spend `5,000 crore in 2015-16; `5,000 crore in 2016-17; `5,000 crore in 2017-18 and `2,000 crore in 2018-19.
Terms of reference of the project have been submitted to Unified Traffic and Transportation Infrastructure (Planning and Engineering) Centre for clearance before the PWD can go ahead and hire a consultant for the project.
In fact, the East-West corridor was originally mooted to decongest the busy ITO crossing in 2007. It is being revived with changes. In the earlier plan, the corridor was to start near Akshardham Temple and terminate near Punjabi Bagh. Stretching from Anand Vihar in the East to NH-10, the East-West corridor will be approximately 30-35km long. From behind Pragati Maidan, the corridor will turn towards ITO. It will bypass the ITO Crossing but join DDU Marg and go up till the railway station as an elevated stretch. large parts of it are likely to be underground, especially those that pass through congested areas such as New Delhi Railway Station. In the revised proposal, both sides of the corridor have been extended.
PWD sources said the East-West corridor will not only give high speed access from Uttar Pradesh’s border in the East to Haryana’s border in the West, but also help decongest the ITO intersection and Vikas Marg.
“The elevated road over DDU Marg, where a new court complex is coming up, will further help in reduction of traffic congestion,” said sources. The North-South corridor, stretching about 20-km between Signature Bridge in Wazirabad and Dhaula Kuan, may extend up to NH-8. The PWD also proposes to connect this North-South road to Mangal Pandey Road near loni Border. The road will go underground through crowded stretches such as Rani Jhansi Marg and Vande Mataram Marg. The projects were mooted before the Commonwealth Games but shelved around 2008 due to objections from town planners and conservationists.
The mega project is to construct a 26.9 km, six-lane elevated corridor over the Najafgarh drain, connecting Kakrola Mor to Wazirabad over Outer Ring Road. The road, planned to be built like the Barapullah elevated road, will connect Kakrola Mor in West Delhi with Wazirabad in North Delhi via Meera Bagh and cover Delhi University’s North Campus. The proposed corridor will be an important link to West and North-East Delhi as a chord of Outer Ring Road and will reduce traffic congestion within the city by offering an alternative transport route connecting the periphery of the city. The corridor is expected to provide links to Ring Roads via radial arterial roads, other important roads and national highways because of its geographical location.
There is also a proposal to connect the Mehrauli-Badarpur stretch to Kalindi Kunj through an elevated road. The road will also provide easy accessibility to Delhi from the NCR. Besides, tunnel projects and several flyovers are also part of the proposal.
It would be pertinent to mention that the PWD’s prestigious project connecting Meera Bagh to Wazirabad to make Outer Ring Road signal free is going at a slow pace due to court cases and lack of monitoring system on the project.
Strangely, despite heavy vehicular movement and traffic jams, ITO intersection and Shastri Park intersection were not part of the proposal the PWD sent to the Urban Development Ministry. Both ITO and Shastri Park intersections need to be decongested due to heavy traffic movement and daily jams.