Delhi-Gurgaon e-way: Traffic woes ease at Hero Honda Chowk

In a major relief to those heading from Manesar to New Delhi, the one-side carriageway of the eight-lane Hero Honda Chowk flyover was opened on Monday.

In a major relief to those heading from Manesar to New Delhi, the one-side carriageway of the eight-lane Hero Honda Chowk flyover was opened on Monday.

The flyover at Hero Honda Chowk was opened to traffic from Kherki Daula to New Delhi on Monday. (Parveen Kumar/HT Photo)

It will help commuters save travel time by bypassing an intersection that witnesses heavy traffic from Jaipur, Pataudi, Manesar and other parts of northern Gurgaon.

Officials of the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) claim more than three lakh vehicles ply on the Manesar-New Delhi route every day so the flyover was opened after only two days of trial runs.

For many commuters heading to work after the weekend, the 1.4-km carriageway came as a surprise.

For Kuldeep Dahiya, a resident of Rewari who travels for nearly three hours to Azadpur Mandi in New Delhi to sell cauliflower and brinjal at the wholesale market, the carriageway provides an escape from heavy traffic and ensures he does not lose on customers.

“I leave home around 3.30 am to reach the mandi before 6am. Most of the route is traffic-free besides the Hero Honda Chowk where heavy traffic from Manesar merges with traffic from Pataudi and nearby areas. If there is a jam at the junction, it can take over 45 minutes to clear the stretch and increases chances of losing early morning customers. The flyover’s opening is a huge relief,” Kuldeep said.

Similarly, for Dr Harshavardhan Hegde, an orthopedician with Rockland Hospital at its facility in Manesar and Qutub Institutional Area, New Delhi, the flyover’s opening will save 20-30 minutes of travel time between the two facilities located 40 km apart.

“I complete the 40 km journey between the Manesar and the facility at Qutub Institutional Aarea under two hours, with Hero Honda Chowk being the major bottleneck. I am anticipating that my travel will cut down by half-an-hour,” Hegde said.

The NHAI had awarded the eight-lane flyover project (four lanes on either side) to Valecha Engineering Ltd in January 2015 with expected cost of ₹145 crore. Work began in February 2015. The deadline for the project was set as May 27, 2017.

It is unlikely that the flyover will meet this deadline owing to a restaurant and petrol pump coming in the way of construction on the opposite side of the flyover (from New Delhi to Manesar).

However, officials said with the opening of one-side carriageway the diversion road for traffic from Manesar to New Delhi has been barricaded to create space for accelerating construction work and completing the project by June.

“The flyover’s opening has been done to create a diversion. Traffic from Manesar to New Delhi will be diverted to that route. The official opening will only happen after the entire project is completed on June 30,” Ashok Sharma, project engineer of NHAI said.