Repair of Shankar Chowk underpass delayed by another week

The underpass, which allows signal-free movement of traffic from Ambience Mall towards Iffco Chowk on the Delhi-Gurgaon Expressway has been shut since August 6 due to a leak in the sewer pipeline passing below the road, creating a five square foot-wide and 10-foot-deep deep cave-in.

Gurugram Ten days after a massive cave-in near the exit of Shankar Chowk underpass, officials of the Gurugram Metropolitan Development Authority (GMDA) and DLF, the developer, on Friday said that the facility is likely to stay partially closed at least until the next week.

A JCB machine during the repair work of a massive cave-in that occurred outside the exit of the Shankar Chowk underpass, in Gurugram. (Photo by Yogendra Kumar/Hindustan Times)

The underpass, which allows signal-free movement of traffic from Ambience Mall towards Iffco Chowk on the Delhi-Gurgaon Expressway has been shut since August 6 due to a leak in the sewer pipeline passing below the road, creating a five square foot-wide and 10-foot-deep deep cave-in.

Since then, the traffic has been re-routed via an adjoining service lane, leading to heavy congestion during peak traffic hours.

DLF officials said that heavy rain on Tuesday led to the affected portion, where repair work was going on, to collapse again, delaying its completion by another week.

“We are in the process of boxing the drain, for which a concrete wall is being created all around the affected portion. The wall will protect the existing and repaired line. We should be able to complete the work in the next few days, provided there is no rain,” a spokesperson for DLF said.

A DLF official privy to the matter said that the repair work is expected to be completed by Tuesday and that the passage of vehicles over the affected stretch will be only allowed after a gap of three days, once all the structural integrity tests are completed.

Although DLF is repairing it, the Huda master sewerage drain is looked after by the GMDA. During the construction of the underpass, the original sewerage line had been diverted. It is at this point, where the diverted and original sewerage lines are connected, where the leakage has been reported.

Lalit Arora, chief engineer of GMDA, said, “Our contractor and DLF are engaged in the repair work. It will take two to three days to complete. The underpass will only open after all safety tests are completed.”

With the exit portion of the underpass closed, DLF, the caretaker of the facility, opened a gap in the median dividing the stretch of the underpass and the service lane of the Delhi-Gurgaon Expressway, to re-route vehicles on August 7.

Through the median gap, vehicles descending from the underpass take a mandatory right turn and travel via the service lane. However, there is congestion on the stretch during peak hours, as traffic coming from the underpass converges with traffic moving from Cyber City.

“The route diversion is already a scary prospect, as a lot of motorists, unfamiliar with the change, drive at high speeds inside the underpass and have to brake sharply upon noticing the barricades. In addition, the diverted route becomes heavily congested during peak traffic hours, especially during the evening, as traffic from Cyber City and the underpass converge. At times, it takes over 10 minutes to just cross the 200-metre stretch,” said Mihir Kohli, a resident of DLF-5.