To decongest Delhi’s Loni roundabout, PWD plans a four lane, 400m underpass

Located near the Uttar Pradesh border, the Loni roundabout sees traffic converging from Loni Road and from Wazirabad Road ( vehicles moving from Signature Bridge towards Ghaziabad, Loni and Hindon).

In order to resolve the issue of frequent snarls on the route from Signature Bridge towards Ghaziabad, the public works department (PWD) has proposed an underpass near the Loni roundabout. The 400m long and four-lane wide underpass is expected to come up at the intersection of Mangal Pandey Road and Loni Road, the PWD said, adding that the project has been sent to the secretariat for administrative approval and budget allocation.

The underpass, the official quoted above said, will be aligned along Mangal Pandey Road and, once ready, will carry traffic from Signature Bridge towards Ghaziabad, Loni and Hindon. This essentially means that the underpass will separate the interstate traffic away from the busy roundabout. (Representative image/HT Archive)

“Once the secretariat green lights the project, tenders will be invited and construction work started,” a senior PWD official overseeing the project said, asking not to be named.

Located near the Uttar Pradesh border, the Loni roundabout sees traffic converging from Loni Road and from Wazirabad Road ( vehicles moving from Signature Bridge towards Ghaziabad, Loni and Hindon).

Transport experts have attributed the congestion at the roundabout to the intermixing of local and interstate traffic as well as the large-scale movement of heavy trucks to the nearby industrial area.

The underpass, the official quoted above said, will be aligned along Mangal Pandey Road and, once ready, will carry traffic from Signature Bridge towards Ghaziabad, Loni and Hindon. This essentially means that the underpass will separate the interstate traffic away from the busy roundabout.

Initially, the department was planning to develop the underpass along with the proposed flyovers on Mangal Pandey Road, but it was later decided that the PWD will develop these flyovers jointly with the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC). And that led to a revision of plans, the official said.

While the underpass and flyovers have received an approval from UTTIPEC (Unified Traffic and Transportation Infrastructure Centre), the expenditure approval from the government is awaited.

The two flyovers will help decongest Mangal Pandey Road , a key link between Delhi and Ghaziabad, and each of them will be about 1.5km long. “The first flyover will start from Bhajanpura traffic signal and end near Yamuna Vihar, covering a distance of 1,300m, while the second flyover will start from Nand Nagri traffic signal and land near Gagan Cinema T-junction, covering a distance of 1, 500m on National Highway (NH)-9 along the Wazirabad Road. The Khajuri Khas intersection already has a flyover. The three projects together will help make Signature Bridge to Bhopura border a signal-free stretch,” the PWD official said.

S Velmurugan, chief scientist, Central Road Research Institute (CRRI), said interventions will be required at the planning stage itself for dealing with congestion nodes around industrial areas that were once on the periphery of the city but are now in the middle of residential neighbourhoods.

“Loni area has many small and medium scale industrial units. There has to be a provision of service roads to segregate the traffic (local and interstate),” Velmurugan said.

He added that development of Signature Bridge as a connecting point between north-east Delhi and the rest of the city has increased traffic volume on the route and the three projects (underpass and two flyovers) will provide relief to commuters. “It is laudable that such interventions are being made in north-east Delhi, which has remained backward, in terms of infrastructure, as compared to the rest of the national capital,” Velmurugan said.