Flyover, which will provide signal-free ride between Noida and Akshardham, ready

Once inaugurated, this flyover will significantly ease vehicular movement on the stretch and give the commuters a signal-free ride from Noida Gate to Akshardham, Geeta Colony and ITO.

The Public Works Department (PWD) has completed the construction of a flyover in front of Mayur Vihar-I Metro station on Noida-Delhi Link Road, which will ease commuting woes for people travelling between Noida and Akshardham and nearby east Delhi areas.

Traffic congestion in peak hours is a common feature daily on Delhi-Noida Link road. (HT File)

The project is ready to be inaugurated after missing at least four deadlines, officials said.

PWD officials said except for some ‘finishing touches’, the facility is ready to be opened. They added that the department has requested PWD minister Satyendar Jain to fix a date to inaugurate the flyover.

“The construction of the flyover has been completed and we will inaugurate this facility very soon. We have also initiated necessary trials on the flyover before opening it for the traffic,” Jain said.

Currently, the Noida Link Road witnesses heavy traffic jams during peak morning and evening traffic hours.

Marshals stop traffic at one location underneath the flyover every few minutes in order to let pedestrians cross the road, hampering the traffic flow.

The flyover has been constructed at a cost of Rs 50 crore. Once inaugurated, this flyover will significantly ease vehicular movement on the stretch and give the commuters a signal-free ride from Noida Gate to Akshardham, Geeta Colony and ITO. This flyover, which has already missed several deadlines, will run parallel to an existing flyover on Noida-Delhi Link Road.

The flyover was to open in December last year but was delayed because of the Supreme Court-appointed Environment Pollution Control Authority’s (EPCA) ban on construction activities due to severe air pollution in the city in November.

This 800-metre-long flyover is a part of Delhi government’s ambitious Barapullah Phase-3 project – which is under construction and is running way behind its schedule. Construction of this flyover began in May 2015 and was scheduled to be completed by September 2017. The deadline was rescheduled to February 2018 but this too was missed because the construction of two loops, aimed at managing to and fro traffic from Mayur Vihar-I, could not be completed.

Then, the deadline was pushed back to September 2018, but it was missed due to further delay in the construction of the two loops. The PWD set a new December 2018 deadline.

“Initially, the delay occurred because we could not get the forest department’s nod to remove trees on the stretch. But later the project was delayed because of various reasons such as complexities involved in the construction and EPCA ban,” a senior PWD official said.