Delhi-Jaipur carriageway of Iffco Chowk flyover shut after retaining wall collapses

Contractor for flyover will repair wall after local agencies fix the sewerage pipeline that burst under the flyover

The carriageway of the Iffco Chowk flyover leading from Delhi to Jaipur was shut on Monday morning after a portion of the flyover’s retaining wall collapsed.

drains and sewer pipelines were flooded over the weekend due to heavy rain in the city, and even on Monday, a heavy flow of water was witnessed at the site where the sewer pipeline was damaged. (Vipin Kumar/HT PHOTO)

According to the officials of the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI), a sewerage pipeline that passes under the flyover was damaged on Saturday following heavy rainfall, which led to rainwater accumulation and subsequently, damaged the retaining wall.

Retaining walls are relatively rigid walls used for supporting soil laterally so that they can be retained at different levels on the two sides. Iffco Chowk is one of the busiest traffic junctions in the city and the parallel flyover for traffic to move from Delhi to Jaipur was completed in 2019 as part of a project launched in 2016 to decongest the Delhi-Gurgaon Expressway.

Vikas Mittal, senior manager, NHAI, said that drains and sewer pipelines were flooded over the weekend due to heavy rain in the city, and even on Monday, a heavy flow of water was witnessed at the site where the sewer pipeline was damaged. The pipeline runs parallel to the flyover but it wan untouched during the construction of the flyover and it does not bear the vertical load of the structure.

Officials of Gawar Constructions, the contractor for the project, said that they are waiting for the local authorities to repair the sewage pipeline after which they will repair the flyover. Traffic flow is likely to resume on Tuesday after necessary repairs are carried out, they said.

A senior executive of Gawar Constructions, who did not wish to be named, said, “The panels of the wall are still stuck with belts and these will be repaired in two to three days. This time, we have decided to pour concrete under the structure to ensure that a similar problem does not arise in the future.”

A senior official of the Gurugram Metropolitan Development Authority, which is responsible for the maintenance of the pipeline, said that an old segment that ran from Ambience Mall to Rajiv Chowk was damaged and the authority had already given approval for repairing the entire pipeline. “The pipeline is old and we have already finalised plan to repair it in the entirety. The localised damage is being repaired to ensure flyover becomes functional at the earliest,” the official said.

In August 2019, the L-shaped underpass constructed at Iffco chowk for movement of traffic from Huda City Centre towards Iffco Chowk had caved in after heavy rains inundated the stormwater drains and sewage pipelines. The cave-in took place on both sides of the road and damaged the extension joints and the concrete wall of the underpass.