Japanese model out; ministry for flyover at Hero Honda Chowk

Commuters suffering regular travel pangs at the congested Hero Honda Chowk on the Delhi-Gurgaon Expressway for the want of a crossover facility can now heave a sigh of relief as the Union road transport and highways ministry has finally decided to get an elevated 6-lane flyover constructed on the main carriageway.

Commuters suffering regular travel pangs at the congested Hero Honda Chowk on the Delhi-Gurgaon Expressway for the want of a crossover facility can now heave a sigh of relief as the Union road transport and highways ministry has finally decided to get an elevated 6-lane flyover constructed on the main carriageway.

The decision was taken at a high-level meeting between Union minister Oscar Fernandes and Haryana chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda at Transport Bhawan in New Delhi on Wednesday.

Hooda had come to New Delhi to meet Fernandes and discuss on how to resolve the Delhi-Gurgaon Expressway imbroglio.

“Since the matter is in court, we will plead for an early solution. The public is suffering due to the delay in resolving the issues,” Fernandes said after the meeting.

On the issue of decongesting Hero Honda Chowk, Fernandes said that the road ministry had decided to build a flyover over the existing carriageway. “It will help in decongesting the stretch as the cross-traffic will now move under the flyover,” he said.

Fernandes said that the flyover would cost approximately `100 crore and take 18 months to be completed. “It is going to be a permanent solution that will go a long way in easing the traffic flow on this stretch of National Highway-8,” he said.

Elaborating on why the ministry decided on making the flyover on the main carriageway and not across the chowk, ministry officials said that as land acquisition was an issue here and the cost otherwise could have escalated very much, they decided on this type of flyover.

The vehicles coming from both the directions would cross the highway under the flyover, it was learnt.

Regarding the high-rise mall model with elevated stretches of road passing through it - like in Osaka, Japan - the officials said that had been kept aside for the time being.

(Inputs from Moushumi Das Gupta)