Demolition of flyover on Ring Road causes chaos

According to traffic police, vehicular movement on both the carriageways between Rajouri Garden and Punjabi Bagh is expected to be impacted for the next one year

While the Public Works Department (PWD) has initiated the work for corridor development on the West Delhi section of Ring Road by extending the existing one-way flyovers between Punjabi Bagh and Raja Garden, the ensuing demolition work of the single-carriageway flyover near ESI Hospital is already leading to large-scale traffic snarls. According to traffic police, vehicular movement on both the carriageways between Rajouri Garden and Punjabi Bagh is expected to be impacted for the next one year due to this. Experts have also questioned the need for expanding the flyover within the first two decades of its construction (it was readied in 2005) and criticised the PWD’s planning.

Cranes seen demolishing Punjabi Bagh Club Flyover due to an ongoing project for the construction of elevated road at Punjabi Bagh. (Sanchit Khanna/HT Photo)

The project

The Ring Road section in Punjabi Bagh region has two one-way flyovers near Raja Garden and Club Road. “Both these flyovers comprise two lanes. Under the corridor improvement project, the department plans to convert this corridor into a six-lane elevated corridor to allow two-way movement of vehicles. Additionally, the flyovers will be extended over a 1,400m stretch to merge them into an elevated corridor,” a PWD official said, asking not to be named. The length of the flyover at the Club Road intersection is around 600m and it will be extended up to ESI Hospital. With demolition teams busy razing the old one-way flyover between ESI Hospital and Club Road, the at-grade road is now catering to the entire vehicular volume. Once complete, vehicles on the at-grade road will shift to the elevated corridor, segregating local and thoroughfare traffic in the area.

Traffic mess

With the demolition of a section of the Pujabi Bagh flyover, all vehicles are now commuting via the at-grade road. Moreover, with the initiation of construction work, the U-turn under the flyover is also closed. According to a PWD official associated with the project, the Raja Garden-Punjabi Bagh stretch--the arterial connection between North Delhi and South Delhi, and Gurugram used by a large chunk of interstate commuters, witnesses the movement of at least 125,000vehicles every day.

Shubham Singh, a commuter said called the situation completely chaotic. “It is a nightmare to cross this section in the evening. There is no entry or exit point from Club Road side that joins Ring Road so it took me around 1-1.5-hours last night to travel 5km,” he said.

Arun Trivedi, another commuter, said that the construction is leading to huge spillover effect. “The traffic starts piling up from Moti Nagar towards Punjabi Bagh for accessing the right turn. During the construction, the agencies should widen the crossing to accommodate the high volume of vehicles,” he added.

Yatin Sethi, another commuter, questioned the need for the project. “There are massive daily traffic jams on Ring Road at Basaidarapur Punjabi Bagh. This stretch was recently widened after years of work. What was the need for a flyover now?” he asked.

A PWD official, however, said there are enough lanes available for traffic even as the construction activity takes place. “The flyover reconstruction and demolition is taking place simultaneously and the progress is as per schedule and shall be completed on time. The traffic problem shall be resolved within 15 days as foundation work of the flyover that is currently under construction will be completed. Then even more lanes shall be open for public.”

Experts question planning

In an official advisory, the Delhi Traffic Police said commuters should avoid the stretch and added that vehicular movement will remain affected for at least 11 months. The Punjabi Bagh-Club Road flyover was developed in 2005 and the need for demolition of its section so early has also raised several questions.

Dr S Velmurugan, chief scientist, Central Road Research Institute (CRRI) said that need for demolition clearly shows poor planning on part of PWS. “The traffic volume growth projection should have been done at the planning stage. A flyover is ideally built to last 40-50 years with regular maintenance and periodical repair but in this case the demolition is being undertaken in the second decade of its construction. Moreover, a single-carriageway flyover should not have been built where there was no paucity of land. It looks like a planning failure.” Dr Velmurugan added that similar planning failure is apparent in the case of doubling of Sarai Kale Khan flyover. “When the agencies knew that the traffic load will increase due to the construction of the Delhi-Meerut expressway and Kalindi Kunj link, a single-carriageway flyover should not have been built on Ring Road,” he added.

According to the PWD, the initial plan involved demolishing the existing Club Road flyover structure except last panels so that the same may be extended towards ESI Hospital. “However, after intensive research was carried out by the department with the consultants and designer of the contractor, it was realised that due to safety and stability concerns of the existing flyover, the solution was to replace even the last panels of flyover with the new one”, an official said.

The foundation stone for the doubling of flyover was laid by deputy CM Manish Sisodia on September 29 and the PWD had announced that the project is likely to be completed in 18 months.

PWD will also increase the number of lanes on the Raja Garden flyover but no demolition work is expected to be undertaken at this site, an official conformed. “The length of Punjabi Bagh flyover will be increased to 1.05km. Initially, we planned to construct a parallel flyover and increase the existing length, but later found that it may lead to instability of the structure. The consultant for the project suggested that the demolition take place. One section has been razed and the remaining portion will be brought down in the next 15-20 days,” the PWD official said, requesting anonymity.

The infrastructure planning arm of Delhi Development Authority-- the Unified Traffic and Transportation Infrastructure (planning and engineering) Centre UTTIPEC had cleared this project in December 2020. The project was awaiting financial sanction from the government for several years. The expenditure finance committee of the government had provided the financial go-ahead for the project on May 10, 2022.