Section of Punjabi Bagh corridor may open by Jan

The Public Works Department (PWD) plans to open the west Delhi Ring Road corridor between Punjabi Bagh and Moti Nagar flyovers in two phases, with the first section of the six-lane flyover at Moti Nagar intersection expected to be ready by January 2024, senior officials associated with the project said on Monday.

The project involves doubling two separate three-lane flyovers at Moti Nagar and Punjabi Bagh and connecting them to carve a six-lane corridor extending from ESI Hospital to the Club Road flyover. The stretch is part of the Punjabi Bagh and Raja Garden flyovers, one of the busiest sections of Ring Road, which is used by traffic from north and south Delhi as well as vehicles headed to Gurugram and parts of Haryana.

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The new corridor will also provide seamless connectivity between Dhaula Kuan in south Delhi to Azadpur in north Delhi, the officials said. The infrastructure planning arm of DDA -- the Unified Traffic and Transportation Infrastructure (planning and engineering) Centre or UTTIPEC cleared the project in December 2020. The expenditure finance committee of the Delhi government provided the financial approval for the project on May 10, 2022 while announcing that it will be completed in the next 18 months.

The officials added that the Rs352.3 crore project is being carried out under the Corridor Development and Flyover Construction Scheme of PWD. The construction work started in September 2022. PWD minister Atishi inspected the project on October 12, and directed the department to ensure that the construction work on both sites is completed by January.

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A senior PWD official, who asked not to be named, said the six-lane Moti Nagar section of the new elevated corridor will be opened for traffic by December last week or early January, relieving one of the two congestion nodes. He added that the rest of the corridor will take more time.

“We lost momentum last month when a ban was imposed on construction under the Graded response action plan (Grap) for two weeks between November 8 and 18. We are trying to complete Moti Nagar section in the next one month. The remaining portion of the Club Road flyover also face hurdles in relocation of power lines. It could be delayed to at least April next year,” the official said.

A second official who also spoke on condition of anonymity said the agency had to place girders in the presence of heavy traffic which slowed down the pace of work. “In Punjabi Bagh, the relocation of power lines is taking time. Other utilities have been shifted though. We have held series of meetings with power companies over the issue. We hope to finish the work by February. We will need another two months to wrap up the remaining civil work,” the official added.

“Around 1.25 lakh vehicles pass through the two flyovers every day and once the project is complete it is estimated to lead to annual saving of 18 lakh litres of fuel annually, as well as 27,000 man-hours of labour due to reduction in congestion,” the second official added.

Dhiraj Dhingra, who uses this Ring Road section, said roads alongside the Punjabi Bagh flyover are in bad shape which lead to heavy traffic snarls. “They must be repaired soon,” Dhingra said.