Now, PWD sets March deadline for overdue Ashram underpass in Delhi

A senior PWD official said that work on one section of the road, and covering the ramps with shade, will be completed by the end of February. The road will be opened for the public after trial runs by the traffic police

The Ashram underpass, which has already missed five deadlines, is likely to be opened for traffic in the first week of March, officials in the public works department (PWD), the agency working on the project, on Monday said.

Unusually heavy rain in January and the ban on construction activities imposed in November and December due to rising pollution levels delayed the work, said a senior PWD official. (Arvind Yadav/HT)

A senior PWD official associated with the project said that work on one section of the road, and covering the ramps with shade, will be completed by the end of February. The road will be opened for the public after trial runs by the traffic police, he added.

The official, who asked not to be named, blamed unusually heavy rain in January, and the ban on construction activities imposed in November and December last year due to rising pollution levels, for delaying the work.

To be sure, these reasons do not explain the saga of delays that has dogged this project, which was aimed at decluttering one of the city’s busiest intersections but ended up creating a two-year-long traffic nightmare.

The project, which was originally slated to be completed in December 2020, has missed five deadlines, the last one being December 2021. Things reached a point when no formal deadline was set after that.

“We are trying to cover the ramps as an additional safety measure to prevent water-logging in the underpass during the monsoon. The covers will be placed on entry and exit ramps on the Jangpura and Badarpur sides. Finishing touches to the art work on the side walls is also going on. The final date for the inauguration of the underpass will be decided by the government,” said a second official associated with the project.

The first deadline for the underpass, which aims to ease traffic jams at the busy intersection, was set for December 2020. It was then revised to April 2021; then to June 2021; then shifted to August 31; and, having failed to deliver the project even then, the deadline was finally moved to December 31, 2021. But that deadline, too, was missed.

Officials in the Delhi government did not respond to requests seeking comments.

For more than two years, protracted construction work, poor site management, and haphazard dumping of construction material and debris has made Ashram Chowk a traffic choke point for commuters. And a decision to simultaneously start work on the extension of Ashram flyover up to Delhi-Noida Direct (DND) Flyway extended the chaos from the main intersection to the turn towards Sarai Kale Khan.

S Khan, the president of Sukhdev Vihar Resident’s Welfare Association, said that passing through the Ashram intersection has become a persistent headache. “We have to count a delay of at least one hour during the evening rush hours. It is a pain point not just for regular commuters but also local residents who not only face the traffic chaos but also air pollution. Once, during an emergency, we got stuck in the jam and had to leave our vehicle mid-way and walk amid heavy traffic,” Khan said.

An air pollution ban (starting November 2019), assembly polls (March 2020), pandemic-induced lockdowns (between March 2020 and June 5, 2021), and another construction ban due to severe air pollution (November and December last year) have been cited by PWD as factors that have delayed work on the underpass. But people who use the road say the story is more complicated than that, and complain of poor planning by PWD and poor management by the traffic police.

Prabhat Agrawal, who uses the stretch for his daily commute, alleged that even cab drivers have started to cancel the rides around peak hours, if they need to pass through Ashram Chowk. “Are the authorities even aware of daily traffic jams that happen on all four sides of the Ashram Chowk? If they are not, they should ask any cab or auto driver who refuse to ply in this area just because they don’t want to avoid this junction at any cost,” Agrawal who was stuck in traffic at the intersection on Monday evening said.

Kanan Bahl, who was waiting a few metres away from Agrawal, said that it was poor traffic management that leads to the chaos. “How many more years will they take to build this underpass? In the last one hour, I have moved just one kilometre,” he added.

Delhi traffic police said they have suggested alternative routes to motorists avoid the congested intersection. “Ashram Chowk remains congested due to the ongoing construction work on the underpass and the extension of the flyover. Motorists travelling from Sarai Kale Khan to AIIMS are advised to take the Barapullah flyover, and those going from DND Flyway towards AIIMS have also been advised to use the Barapullah,” a traffic police official said.

Sewa Ram, professor of transport planning in the School of Planning and Architecture, said Ashram is a key intersection, and it should have been executed on top priority. “We are already a decade late in the intervention at this intersection. With other projects such as Delhi-Meerut Expressway having been completed, the traffic volume at this intersection has increased. Vehicles from east Delhi now have a free flow up to the intersection, and the agencies taking up the underpass project should have factored it in,” he said.

Work on such a busy and crucial intersection should have been taken up in phases with a comprehensive alternative mobility plan, he added.