Traffic eases as Ashram extension flyover is fully operational

The traffic between Sarai Kale Khan, Lajpat Nagar, and other parts of south and southeast Delhi has eased since the Public Works Department (PWD) operationalised the last remaining part of the Ashram extension flyover—a 200-metre-long access loop—on Monday.

“We opened the last loop after all the work was completed on Monday. There was much disturbance in the pre-planned schedule because of the early monsoon and rains after every few days in June,” said a PWD official.

The 1.42-kilometre Ashram flyover was opened for light vehicles on March 6 and for heavy ones on May 29 after the relocation of high-tension power lines.

Those travelling to south Delhi from Noida and Ghaziabad via the Delhi-Meerut Expressway no longer need to take the Maharani Bagh stretch, where congestion has also eased.

The government said the last remaining loop would be opened within five days when the flyover was opened for heavy vehicles in May. But the work was finally completed a month and a half later on Monday.

A PWD official said the work is complete, but the repair work and the laying of bitumen coal tar on the at-grade stretch under the flyover remains and will be taken up after the monsoon.

“The repair of the at-grade stretch is going on in patches. ...the bitumen surface can only be laid on dry areas. So, we will have to wait until the roads get dry...there is no prediction of rainfall for the next few days,” said another official.

In November 2019, the Delhi Cabinet approved the proposal for the flyover extension. Chief minister Arvind Kejriwal laid down its foundation stone in December 2019 but the work could not start due to the coronavirus lockdown.

The work was awarded in June 2020 with an initial completion deadline of a year. But the shortage of labour and the pandemic delayed the construction work for eight months.