Chirag Delhi flyover repairs to be completed by May 1

The Chirag Delhi flyover is likely to be fully repaired and opened to commuters by May 1, officials of the Public Works Department (PWD) said on Wednesday.

The ongoing repair on one half of the IIT to Nehru Place carriageway will be completed by April 16, following which the other half will be closed for repairs, the officials said.

The repair work, which started March 12 with the Nehru Place to IIT carriageway, is about 65% complete, they added.

The Nehru Place-IIT carriageway of the flyover was recently opened for traffic on Friday after 20 days of repair work. “Once this half is repaired, we will have completed 75% of the job by April 16. The remaining 25% of work on the carriageway will also be completed by May 1. We are trying to finish work at the earliest from our end and restore full traffic movement,” said Rajesh Kumar Gupta, executive engineer, PWD Delhi.

One of the most important routes leading to the Delhi airport on Outer Ring Road, the Chirag Delhi flyover traffic, has been a huge concern for commuters as well as neighbourhood residents since the repairs started.

The area has been seeing bumper-to-bumper traffic as vehicles have been taking up to an hour to cover a one kilometre from Panchsheel Park Metro station to the flyover.

Even as half of the IIT to Nehru Place carriageway is open for vehicular movement, residents of the area said that the traffic situation was still problematic. “The traffic is still a mess. There was a clear lack of planning. Many vehicles had started using the roads within residential colonies as alternative routes, but we have now stopped all such vehicles from coming in,” said Jasjit Singh from Panchsheel Enclave RWA.

Traffic officials, meanwhile, said there was sufficient deployment at site. “We had increased deployment when the work had started in March. We have not received any information on the final completion dates but we will continue to keep officials posted till required,” said SS Yadav, special commissioner of police (traffic).

Work on the flyover was planned to be completed in 50 days. Last month, Delhi PWD minister, Atishi, directed officials that only one half of the carriageway be closed at a time to ensure some movement even as she asked to speed up work.

Officials working on the project said that opening of one half of the carriageway increased the amount of time taken for the repair work.

Experts said that better planning could have improved the timelines without hampering the repair work.

Comparing it with the Modi Mills flyover repair work that was undertaken last year, experts say that it took a little over two months. However, it was wider and needed more time.

“Fifty days is a lot of time to repair a flyover. If more manpower was put in and multiple spans were taken up for repairs at a time, this work could have been done faster. Vibration due to moving vehicles should hardly have any impact on the work as one of the main purposes of the ongoing expansion joint refurbishment is to reduce vibration,” said S Velmurugan, chief scientist and head, Traffic Engineering and Safety Division, Central Road Research Institute (CRRI).

He added that for better traffic management during the repairs work, diversion ahead of the flyover and placing proper signages would have helped in reducing the bottleneck.