Shankar Chowk underpass likely to fully open on Monday, after six weeks

The Shankar Chowk underpass, which has been partially closed for the last six weeks, is likely to fully open on Monday, said officials. On August 6, the sewer pipeline

The Shankar Chowk underpass, which has been partially closed for the last six weeks, is likely to fully open on Monday, said officials. On August 6, the sewer pipeline passing below the road developed a leakage and subsequently created a five-square-foot wide and 10-foot deep hole.

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Officials from DLF, the caretaker of the underpass, said that they started covering the patch, repaired by the GMDA, last Sunday with a granular sub-base (GSB) and from Wednesday onwards started allowing vehicles to pass over the affected stretch. GSB is a mixture of sand, gravel, and stone used in road construction, prior to the bitumen coating.

On August 24, Gurugram Metropolitan Development Authority (GMDA) had constructed a reinforced cement concrete (RCC) slab above the point of leakage in the sewer line, four metres below the road surface, to ensure that the road structure remains unaffected if another leakage develops in the pipeline in the future.

GMDA officials had said that concrete needs a minimum of three weeks to reach its optimum strength, and that the next step could only be initiated after mid-September.

“After the RCC slab had reached its full strength, we carried out tests to check if there was any possibility of any leakage occurring and impacting the road above. Once we were convinced that everything was in place, we gave a go ahead to DLF for re-carperting work to start,” said Jagdish Sarot, executive engineer, sewerage, GMDA.

The 464-metre unidirectional underpass allows vehicles coming from the direction of Ambience Mall and DLF Phase 3, along the service lanes of the Delhi-Gurgaon Expressway, to head directly towards IFFCO Chowk.

Since its closure, motorists using the underpass have not been able to head straight towards IFFCO Chowk. They instead have had to turn right, before the end of the underpass, and drive via the adjoining service lane. The service lane though also carries traffic coming from Cyber City, and the addition of vehicles from the underpass leads to heavy congestion during peak traffic hours.

“A GSB layering has been added on top of the road surface which had caved in. We have opened the affected portion to traffic to assess the depression caused by vehicle movement. On Sunday, we will ascertain the exact depth of the depression following which a bitumen layer will be added, and the underpass will be fully opened the next day,” said a DLF official privy to the matter.

The three-lane unidirectional underpass near Cyber City metro station opened to traffic on April 7, 2017.

In 2016, a master sewerage line was re-routed, to make space for the construction of the underpass to commence. At the point where the diverted and original sewerage lines meet is where the leakage has occurred, said GMDA officials.