Gurgaon: Two more underpasses open, snarls at Rajiv Chowk, Signature Tower likely to ease

Chief minister Manohar Lal Khattar inaugurates the underpasses; promises that the remaining two underpasses at the Hero Honda Chowk and the Iffco Chowk would be opened in March this year

Ten years after the access-controlled 28km the Delhi-Gurgaon Expressway was opened to traffic in February 2008, commuters got some major relief from the perennial congestion with the opening of two underpasses at Rajiv Chowk and Signature Tower on Monday.

The Signature Tower underpass will bring relief to commuters headed from the Huda City Centre to the Atul Kataria Chowk and vice versa. (Sanjeev Verma/HT PHOTO)

After inaugurating the underpasses, Haryana chief minister Manohar Lal Khattar said, “Connectivity between old and new Gurugram will be easy now that the two underpasses are open. For those who had been facing difficulty in crossing the Expressway, the two underpasses would bring you permanent relief. The remaining two underpasses at the Hero Honda Chowk and the Iffco Chowk would be opened in March. A petrol pump is to be shifted on the MG Road to complete the underpass construction at the Iffco Chowk.”

The chief minister inaugurated the two underpasses in the presence of Mansukh L Mandaviya, Union minister of state (MoS) for road Transport and highways (MoRTH); Rao Inderjit Singh,Union minister of state for planning, chemicals and fertilizers; and Rao Narbir Singh, Haryana public works minister .

The 28km Delhi-Gurgaon Expressway was opened in February 2008— dissecting the city into east and west and without any safe and easy arrangements to cross the expressway.

In less than three years of operation, the junctions—the Hero Honda Chowk, the Rajiv Chowk, the Signature Tower and the Iffco Chowk—emerged as the worst bottlenecks in the city, leading to frequent snarls and earning the city the infamous sobriquet of “Gurujam”.

The demand for flyovers and underpasses at all four junctions gained momentum each time there was a gridlock on the Expressway, but the government failed to provide a solution, until now.

The underpass at the Rajiv Chowk would be used by commuters crossing the expressway to and from the Sohna Road, while the Signature Tower underpass will bring relief to commuters headed from the Huda City Centre to the Atul Kataria Chowk and vice versa.

In 2014, the NHAI planned to decongest the highway and, two years later, in September 2016, construction of these structures began to put an end to snarls on the expressway.

On July 24, 2017, the NHAI opened the flyover at the Hero Honda Chowk.

On August 14, 2017, the highways authority opened one of the two underpasses at the Rajiv Chowk and a flyover at the Maharana Pratap Chowk.

On November 3, 2017, the NHAI went on open one of three elevated U-turns at the Iffco Chowk.