Delay in land transfer puts Gurugram road expansion project on back burner: Highways authority

The National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) has temporarily halted a road expansion project in Gurugram due to delays in land transfer and the proposed construction of an elevated road. NHAI will focus on other projects for now and hand over the repaired road to the Gurugram Metropolitan Development Authority. The stretch between Hero Honda Chowk and Umang Bhardwaj Chowk is one of the busiest in the city.

The National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) for the time being has descoped the proposed road expansion project between Hero Honda Chowk and Umang Bhardwaj Chowk due to delay in land transfer, officials aware of the matter said on Monday.

The stretch between Hero Honda Chowk and Umang Bhardwaj Chowk is one of the busiest stretches in the city (Parveen Kumar)

The highway authority officials said that after repairing potholes or eroded portions of the road, they will hand over the road to the Gurugram Metropolitan Development Authority (GMDA).

The key road project has remained stuck for the last two years due to delay in land transfer and removal of encroachments.

Another key reason for the delay is that the Haryana government proposed the construction of an elevated road along with a double-decker facility with Haryana Mass Rapid Transport Corporation Limited (HMRTC) Metro on the second level, which is also linked to the road expansion project.

NHAI officials said that it will take a considerable time in developing the design of Metro pillars and allied facilities. So, they will prefer to focus on completing the Gurugram Pataudi Road from Dwarka Expressway towards Pataudi instead of this stretch.

The legal hurdles with regard to land acquisition and transfer have also delayed this project, said officials privy to the matter.

“We have decided to descope this project for the time being as construction and expansion of the stretch from Hero Honda Chowk to Umang Bhardwaj Chowk will take more time. There is an issue of land transfer, incorporation of Metro infrastructure into the expansion project and there is also a new discussion on construction of an elevated road on this project. All these issues will take time to resolve. We will focus on Gurugram Pataudi Road, Delhi-Jaipur highway and other projects for the time being,” said Dheeraj Singh, project director, NHAI, PIU, Rewari.

Singh, who is also in charge of the Sohna elevated road project and Delhi-Jaipur highway, also said that in the coming months they will carry out general maintenance of the road and hand it over to GMDA for further upkeep.

The stretch between Hero Honda Chowk and Umang Bhardwaj Chowk is one of the busiest stretches in the city with traffic converging from national highway, Sohna road, Dwarka Expressway and Old Gurugram. Frequent traffic congestions during peak hours have led to frequent demands from city residents that this road should be expanded or a flyover be constructed on the stretch.

A GMDA spokesperson said, “We have been apprised about the descoping of road improvement work from NHAI, but not about overall status of the project.”

The project to expand the road from Hero Honda Chowk to Umang Bhardwaj Chowk, which is 3.2 km in length, was conceived in 2021, but due to non-availability of land and existing encroachments, the construction could not be started by the highway authority.

In the second week of November, HSVP allotted an alternative site to the CNG pump, which fell on the main carriageway of this project. The authority said that to expedite the construction of this road, it has decided to allot it a site in Sector 37-II.