January 31, new deadline for Bajghera flyover

Gurugram After two months of ban on construction activities, the Indian Railways resumed slab casting work on Bajghera flyover on Tuesday. Soon after the ban was

Gurugram After two months of ban on construction activities, the Indian Railways resumed slab casting work on Bajghera flyover on Tuesday. Soon after the ban was lifted by the Supreme Court on Monday, the Railways issued instructions to the contractor of Bajghera flyover to start the work and complete it by January 31.

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The deadline for the project has been changed four times so far.

A senior official of Indian Railways, on condition of anonymity, said, “Only slab casting (making cement foundation to put in place a bituminous layer of road) was remaining mainly, when the ban was imposed by the court in view of bad air. Slab casting work will be completed by Friday and it will take three weeks to settle, after which the bituminous layer will be laid. We will try to complete work latest by January-end.”

The Supreme Court lifted the ban on construction activities on Monday after a hearing. However, the ban on stone crushers is set to continue. The court had imposed the ban on October 12 for an indefinite period for pollution reason in Delhi and the national capital region (NCR).

“Manually managed, the Bajghera railway crossing was a big bottleneck point for the traffic on the road. We planned a flyover and an underpass to make traffic flow smoother on the Bajghera road. We have requested the Indian Railways to complete the work as soon as possible. It has already been delayed by a year,” said Narender Yadav, executive engineer, PWD.

Initially, December 2018 was set as the deadline for the project, but it was then changed to June 30, 2019, and then to August 31 and subsequently, November 30. PWD had completed the approach roads in June 2019, while the central portion of the flyover is being constructed by the Indian Railways.

“We opened the underpass to traffic on October 9. That brought relief to local residents, who now can cross the railway track, at least. The flyover will bring permanent relief to area residents as well as long-distance commuters,” said Yadav.

The end of the ban has brought the hope of smoother traffic flow to the residents.

Lalit Kumar, resident, New Palam Vihar, said, “It has been delayed by a year and we hope PWD complete it at the earliest. Since work began in December 2016, the Bajghera railway crossing was blocked and we had to take a three-kilometre detour to reach Palam Vihar from New Palam Vihar.”