U-turn underpass near Ambience Mall opens for trials after several delays

The 377-metre U-turn underpass provides passage to commuters coming from the direction of Shankar Chowk to head directly towards DLF Phase-3 and Ambience Mall instead of crossing into Delhi, amid the heavily congested traffic at the toll, and then taking a U-turn below the Rajokri flyover to head back towards Gurugram

After missing several deadlines, a U-turn underpass near the Ambience Mall, located just before the Sirhaul toll plaza, opened for traffic movement on a trial basis.

After missing several deadlines, a U-turn underpass near the Ambience Mall, located just before the Sirhaul toll plaza, opened for traffic movement on a trial basis. The facility helps reduces travel time by around 20-25 minutes during peak traffic hours as it cuts the distance for taking a U-turn by around five kilometres. (Parveen Kumar/HT Photo)

The facility helps reduces travel time by around 20-25 minutes during peak traffic hours as it cuts the distance for taking a U-turn by around five kilometres.

The 377-metre underpass provides passage to commuters coming from the direction of Shankar Chowk to head directly towards DLF Phase-3 and Ambience Island instead of crossing into Delhi, amid the heavily congested traffic at the toll, and then taking a U-turn below the Rajokri flyover to head back towards Gurugram.

Officials of the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) said that the underpass opened early Sunday on a trial basis.

Saurabh Singhal, the NHAI consultant for the project, said, “During the trial, NHAI officials will be carrying out a safety audit of the underpass to check if safety measures such as signage and reflectors are properly placed, whether speed-calming measures need to be installed to check speeding inside the facility, spot blind turns or sharp bends, lighting is adequate, among other such features. Depending on the outcome of the audit, NHAI will take a further call on continuing with the trial or permanently opening it,” Singhal said.

In the past, NHAI officials had opened underpasses even before the projects were completed. The Medanta and Iffco Chowk underpasses were opened in August 2017 and March 2019, respectively, even though the Medanta underpass did not have a direct electricity supply while the drainage outlet at Iffco Chowk underpass was not completed, both of which inconvenienced commuters.

A senior NHAI official privy to the matter, who did not wish to be named, said that the trial is being carried out to avoid such mistakes and it is likely to be in place till Diwali. The official said that unless major defects are found, the facility will be opened permanently.

The official, however, said that during the trial period, the use of the underpass will be regulated. “As and when we discover defects or any issues that need to be addressed, we will be closing the underpass for short periods. The idea of the trial is to find out issues and fix them before opening it full time,” the official said.

On Monday afternoon, the underpass was closed for a few hours due to electrical works.

Work on the underpass started on March 5, 2019, with a deadline of September 2020. However, due to the coronavirus outbreak, and lack of manpower, the work got delayed and various deadlines were set in July 2021, August 2021, and the latest one on October 15, which was announced by the union transport minister Nitin Gadkari while visiting the Delhi-Mumbai Expressway last month.

“We had aimed to finish the project by October 15. However, some electrical work and road work could not be completed in time. We had aimed at opening the facility a few days before Diwali on a full-time basis, however, it was later decided to carry out a trial in the interim, instead,” the NHAI official cited above said.

The access road leading towards the underpass is 559 metres long and the service road is seven metres wide. The speed limit inside the facility is 40kmph, and the underpass is 14 metres wide with a 5.5-metre vertical tunnel clearance.