Pragati Maidan arteries ready for traffic flow

After missing six deadlines, the Pragati Maidan integrated corridor project may finally be opened for vehicular movement before June end, according to officials associated with the project.

After missing six deadlines, the Pragati Maidan integrated corridor project, which includes a 1.4-km-long tunnel under the Pragati Maidan and six underpasses -- five of them on the busy Mathura Road, may finally be opened for vehicular movement before June end, officials associated with the project have said.

The underground road corridor will help decongest one of the most traffic-intensive areas in Delhi as well as roads that are marred perennially by traffic jams. (Raj K Raj/HT Photo)

A Public Works Department official, who is associated with the project, said that construction work related to the tunnel and the underpasses has been completed, and added that the date to open

A second PWD official who also asked not to be named said that “minor work” related to footpath improvement is being carried out near stretches along Supreme Court and Mathura Road. “Clean up and finishing work of underpass near railway line on Bhairon Marg-Ring Road T-junction is being carried out where waterlogging was observed last week. This has been the most challenging site in the project due to its close vicinity to Yamuna as the water table here is high. Along with this, RRTS corridor related construction work is also being carried out in its vicinity which makes it more vulnerable. We are completing this section and traffic movement can be started in another two weeks,” the second official said

S Velmurugan, chief scientist, Central Road Research Institute (CRRI), said the corridor improvement project will augment both intra-city traffic movement as well as inter-city connectivity with NCR towns as RRTS (Regional rapid transit system) connecting Meerut to Delhi will improve inter-city connectivity in its vicinity. “It is estimated that the congestion in the neighbourhood [of the project in central Delhi] will go down by 15-25%. The project will help reduction traffic on main corridors leading from east and south Delhi towards central Delhi. The congestion nodes at Bhairon Marg and Sunder Nagar will also be relieved,” he added.

The underground section in the main Pragati Maidan tunnel is 1-km-long while there are additional 400-metre-long ramps on either side. It is 30 metres wide with three lanes on either side. “There are multiple entry exit points for this main tunnel. A separate branch tunnel entry has been provided for vehicles coming from ITO W-point (where the skywalk is located) towards Mathura Road. The tunnel also has second branch tunnel providing entry/exit to the upcoming Pragati Maidan underground parking lot,” the second official explained.

Along with the main tunnel, the project involves total of six underpasses – five on Mathura Road and one on the Ring Road.

Currently, the traffic moving from W-point near ITO towards Sunder Nagar goes through five traffic signals due to which traffic snarls are frequently reported from the stretch. “Five traffic signals on Matura Road will be removed after the four underground U-turns are opened. The underpass at Bhairon Marg and Ring Road T-junction will allow signal free passage to the traffic between Sarai Kale Khan and ISBT (Kashmere Gate).

“During the box pushing railway line should not have train movement. Authorities allowed us 4 hours night time for this work every day and after every block period the track has to be handed back in same situation. At a time, only 1-1.5 hour work could be carried out for box pushing and only 40-50 cm progress could be carried out every day,” PWD official said. Another obstacle in the project was dewatering of areas Bhairon marg point lies right next to Yamuna and water table is high. “We had to deploy pumps frequently to dewater area by stopping the work frequently,” official said.

PWD estimates show ITO bound traffic comprise of 62,000 PCUs (passenger car unit) while Bhairon Marg used to take 57,000 PCUs daily before the project was initiated. The construction work on the integrated corridor started in 2017 and its first deadline was March 2019, after which many subsequent deadlines have been missed by the agency. PWD officials have attempted to attribute delays to construction ban during winter pollution season, shortage of labour during pandemic, the lockdown and record monsoon rainfall.