Hero Honda Chowk flyover reopened

The National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) opened the Jaipur-Delhi carriageway of the Hero Honda Chowk Flyover on Wednesday evening, five months after it was

The National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) opened the Jaipur-Delhi carriageway of the Hero Honda Chowk Flyover on Wednesday evening, five months after it was closed for repair. A deck slab had fallen off the flyover in both 2018 and 2019.

HT Image

Rakesh Mathur, deputy manager of Valecha Engineering Limited, the contractor for the project, said, “We were told by the NHAI to open the flyover by April 15 and we have done so. The jersey barriers were removed.”

On October 31 last year, the traffic police had closed the road from Subhash Chowk towards Sector 10, above the underpass, and from Sector 10 towards Subhash Chowk. Officer Azad Singh of Traffic Police Station-1, said, “With the opening of the flyover, all curbs below the flyover will be removed in the next few days. The right turn above the underpass which allows commuters to drive towards Delhi will also become operational soon.”

The Gurugram Metropolitan Development Authority (GMDA) had put new traffic lights at the Hero Honda Chowk in February in a bid to ease vehicular flow at the junction. The traffic signals have not been used since they were installed. “Now the flyover has become operational, we will request GMDA to start operating the traffic lights below the Hero Honda Chowk flyover so that there is no traffic congestion,” Mathur added.

Two U-turns that were closed for commuters when the repair works started in October will be made operational again, the Gurugram traffic police said. The two U-turns were constructed for commuters travelling from Gurugram to Manesar and from Manesar to Gurugram. They were built to ease traffic congestion at Hero Honda Chowk. “The two U-turns will be made operational so that trucks and other vehicles can easily take a U-turn below the flyover. These U-turns will ease vehicular movement near the Kherki-Daula toll plaza as many motorists have to go till the toll plaza to take a U-turn,” Singh added.

Hero Honda Chowk is the only flyover which has four U-turns, of which only one was operational when the flyover was being repaired. The NHAI had asked its contractor to make two U-turns operational for trucks to move underneath the flyover last year. “The first U-turn (Delhi-Jaipur) is closed. When it was being made, the contractor realised that trucks might collide with the flyover’s ceiling as it was then 100m high. So, a new U-turn was made (which is functional at this junction) on the Delhi-Jaipur side,” an official of the Valecha Engineering Ltd (the NHAI’s contractor) said on condition of anonymity.

The third U-turn was made for commuters to take a turn from the Jaipur-Delhi side. Few metres away is another U-turn meant only for cars, which has also been barricaded. “There are four U-turns and now, with the opening of the flyover two U-turns, the roads on both Jaipur-Delhi side and Delhi-Jaipur side will be operational,” Mathur said.