Art commission rejects ITO flyover

The Delhi Urban Art Commission has rejected the government’s proposal for a flyover to decongest the ITO intersection saying that the problem of traffic jam does not exist to warrant a flyover.

Yet another Delhi flyover plan has been shown the red signal by the Delhi Urban Art Commission (DUAC).

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The agency has rejected the government’s proposal for a flyover to decongest the ITO intersection saying that the problem of traffic jam does not exist to warrant a flyover.

In a recent meeting with PWD engineers, the DUAC panel said the government has been making efforts to strengthen the public transport system. Once a reliable and comfortable system was in place, the flyover would be redundant, the panel said.

Over 2 lakh vehicles pass through ITO crossing every day and it is considered one of the busiest traffic junctions in Delhi. The government had, under its plan to provide new roads and flyovers in the wake Commonwealth Games 2010, been contemplating the constructing a flyover and integrated traffic planning.

A DUAC member said, the proposal for the flyover had been put to the previous committee headed by Charles Correa. “The proposal was rejected even then. This area requires traffic planning. Building the flyover will shift the problem from one crossing to the other,” said the member requesting anonymity.

According to a senior PWD engineer, who did not wish to be named, the junction witnesses long snarls during peak hours (picture). Longer waiting times at ITO crossing results in traffic snarl-up along Vikas Marg in the morning and Tilak Marg, Sikandra Road and Deen Dayal Upadhyay Marg in the evenings.

“Our plan was to make traffic movement seamless in this area. We included adequate facilities in our design,” the engineer said.