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Will open Atul Kataria Chowk flyover, underpass by October next year: PWD
Gurugram: The public works department (PWD) on Thursday reviewed the Atul Kakatria Chowk project that includes a flyover and an underpass, and set a fresh deadline
Gurugram: The public works department (PWD) on Thursday reviewed the Atul Kakatria Chowk project that includes a flyover and an underpass, and set a fresh deadline of its completion as October 31, 2020.
The project missed its first deadline on November 30 this year. PWD officials said that the delay happened because of hindrances in the alignment of the project.
Rajeev Yadav, PWD superintending engineer, who reviewed the project, said that the contractor has been asked to complete the project by October 31, 2020.
“We will open both — underpass and flyover — by October-end for the traffic. However, we have asked contractor to complete the project by September-end only,” said Yadav.
“The project slowed down mainly because of a delay in removing 1,300 trees falling in alignment of underpass and flyover and other utilities. Obtaining permission from forest, and other stakeholders for shifting of these hurdles consumed nearly a year. Now, all hurdles have been removed and ban construction also has been relaxed,” said Yadav.
The Gurugram Metropolitan Development Authority (GMDA) planned to make traffic smooth on Old Delhi Road and Signature Tower-Sheetla Mata Road and the two roads cut across each other at Atul Kataria Chowk, making it one of the major bottleneck points in the city. The GMDA roped in PWD to construct a flyover and an underpass so that the traffic between old city (right to NH 48) and new city areas (left to NH 48 if heading from Delhi to Gurugram) become smooth.
The PWD prepared the detailed project report (DPR) and awarded the work to a contractor in April 2019 to complete it by October 31 this year with one month of grace period.
But by September 2019, the contractor could complete only 8% work. The work was also affected due to a ban on construction work from October 12 to December 9 due to high level of air pollution in Delhi-NCR.
The flyover is expected to decongest the traffic on the Old Delhi road.
“The flyover will make the traffic smooth for commuters heading from main bus stand to Kapashera border and vice versa. Similarly, the underpass will ease the traffic movement between Sheetla Mata Mandir and Huda City Centre via Signature Tower and vice versa,” said Puneet Kumar, PWD executive engineer.
The length of proposed flyover is roughly 900 metre and the underpass’ length is about 700 metres.
“There will be three layers of traffic movements at the chowk – from flyover, underpass and surface,” said the executive engineer, adding that the total cost of the project stands at ₹58.35 crore.
The government planned the flyover and underpass to decongest Atul Kataria Chowk, which is centrally located and connects the major hubs of the city — Huda City Centre Metro Station, bus stand, Sheetla Mata Mandir, sectors 4, 5, 9 and 10, Rajender Park, Gurgaon Railway Station, Daulatabad and the new sectors along the Dwarka Expressway.
