Jaipur-Delhi side of Hero Honda Chowk flyover to become operational by April 15

After having remained shut for more than five months, the Jaipur-Delhi carriageway of the Hero Honda Chowk flyover will be made operational by April 15, even if

After having remained shut for more than five months, the Jaipur-Delhi carriageway of the Hero Honda Chowk flyover will be made operational by April 15, even if the lockdown is extended, officials of the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) said.

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Officials said that the required testing of the flyover, which was undergoing repairs, was complete, but the NHAI is still waiting for the test reports to be handed over to the authority.

Ashok Sharma, project director, NHAI (Gurugram), said, “The Hero Honda Chowk flyover is going to be opened for traffic by April 15. The contractor has been directed accordingly.”

NHAI officials said that if the contractor is not able to start the flyover by April 15, then the highways authority will make the flyover operational on its own. The officials said that the traffic police has been briefed about the opening of the flyover.

NHAI contractor said not having the test report was not a major issue and there was no danger in opening the flyover without assessing the test reports. Rakesh Mathur, deputy manager of Valecha Engineering Limited, contractor for the project, said, “The test report had been generated, but they had to be submitted to the NHAI headquarters around the time the national lockdown came into force. If those who were preparing the report had two days more before the lockdown, they would have given their report.”

The NHAI contractor said they have received a mail from NHAI to start the flyover by April 15, were short of enough workers to remove the jersey barriers placed in front of the flyover. The contractor, however, said they will figure some way out before April 15.

The NHAI had said in early March that it had plans to open the Jaipur-Delhi carriageway of the Hero Honda Chowk flyover by March 31. The authority had missed four deadlines before March 31 already. The highways authority had previously planned to open the carriageway by December 1, 2019, January-end, March 1, and March 15. Officials had said that the repair work was completed in February, necessary tests had been carried out and the flyover would be operational by the end of March. “All repairing is over, the asphalt pavement was also laid down on the part that had to be repaired well before the lockdown,” Mathur said.

In May 2019, a large chunk of concrete fell off the surface of the flyover, leaving a large hole on the road at the same spot where a hole had first appeared in April 2018. Around 15 metres of the Jaipur-Delhi carriageway was to be rebuilt by the NHAI. The flyover was closed for traffic on October 31, 2019 for the repair works.

The repair works on the flyover started in mid-December as construction work was halted in between due to construction ban. “From our side, the flyover is completely ready. We have checked everything,” Mathur added.

The eight-lane, 1.4-kilometre-long flyover was constructed as part of a three-layer crossing — flyover, underpass and surface roads — at Hero Honda Chowk. The construction of the ₹197.84-crore project began in November 2014 and it was opened to the public in 2017.