Work on Dwarka expressway cloverleaf junction over, opened for trial runs

Work on the cloverleaf junction on the Dwarka expressway near Kherki Daula is completed and has been opened for trial runs from all sides, the highway contractor said on Monday

Work on the cloverleaf junction on the Dwarka expressway near Kherki Daula is completed and has been opened for trial runs from all sides, the highway contractor said on Monday. The junction allows traffic to move seamlessly in all four directions with the help of loops and ramps.

The 29km Dwarka expressway is being constructed in four packages. (Parveen Kumar)

The highway contractor, Larsen & Toubro (L&T), said that the construction of a slip road, which takes traffic from the Delhi-Gurgaon expressway to the Southern Peripheral Road (SPR), was completed last week.

“We have opened all the four ramps and loops of the cloverleaf for trial run of traffic, thereby allowing movement of vehicles on all four sides as it connects Dwarka expressway with Delhi-Gurgaon expressway, SPR and Central Peripheral Road,” a senior highway project official said.

The 29km Dwarka expressway is being constructed in four packages. Packages one and two will be in Delhi, while the remaining ones, which are around 18 km long, will fall in Gurugram. The cloverleaf connects the Dwarka expressway with NH-48, and SPR is part of the package four that starts from Basai rail overbridge to NH-48 near Kherki Daula.

A senior L&T official said that the 300-metre stretch of the road, which connects the Delhi-Gurgaon expressway with SPR and is part of the cloverleaf, has been constructed and will allow traffic to move seamlessly from the highway towards Sohna road and head towards the Delhi-Mumbai expressway. “The road was completed last week and with it the work on cloverleaf is now over. We have opened the junction for traffic and all four ramps are now functional for trial,” said the officer who asked not to be named.

A large number of commuters presently use the loop one of the cloverleaf and the ramp along it to travel from Sector 81 to Sector 95, towards Rajiv Chowk in Delhi.

The work on ramp two is also finished, and it takes the traffic from Kherki Daula towards the Dwarka expressway. The ramp three of the cloverleaf takes the traffic from SPR to Kherki Daula and towards Jaipur. The ramp four of the cloverleaf, which was completed last week, takes the traffic from Delhi and Gurugram towards SPR.

“Commuters can use a combination of ramps and loops on the four-way junction to access the three major roads coming from any side — Dwarka expressway, SPR, and NH-48,” the official said.

Gurugram MP Rao Inderjit Singh met Union transport minister Nitin Gadkari last week and sought the early opening of the Gurugram stretch of the Dwarka expressway and shifting of the Kherki Daula toll plaza. In a statement, Singh said that he was apprised in the meeting that work on the project was still incomplete and some more time was needed to finish it.

When asked about the formal opening of the highway, the contractor said that they have not been given any direction in this regard, and would wait for the highway authority to take the final call.

A senior government official privy to the matter said that it is likely that Prime Minister Narendra Modi will inaugurate the project once it is fully completed at least in Gurugram.

Meanwhile, after opening the junction for traffic, the highway contractor said, “We are working on planting trees on the central verge and along the main carriageway. More than 30,000 trees will be planted along the road,” the official said.