ITO flyover plan may be revived

Wednesday, May 27, 2009
source:http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com

The 'now on-now off' ITO flyover project may be revived again, thanks to ITO Chungi getting signal-free by August.

In a meeting on Tuesday, minister for planning and urban development A K Walia asked PWD to revive the project in order to prevent a pile-up on Bahadurshah Zafar Marg. PWD minister Rajkumar Chauhan says the department may get a special approval from the lieutenant governor to get the project off the block but the catch is it may not see the light of the day before the Commonwealth Games.

The ITO flyover is a project which has been on and off the drawing board for more than two years now. It was shelved because of the confusion over how to accommodate BRT, east-west corridor along with it at the ITO crossing. It had been junked once before as no agreeable solution to the conundrum of whether BRT goes over the flyover or under it could be reached. Delhi Urban Art Commission (DUAC) too had resisted the idea of a flyover at the intersection.

Tuesday's meeting which was called to discuss the status of the ITO Chungi project and also that of the Shastri Nagar and Rajaram Kohli Marg flyovers, was attended by senior PWD and DDA officials. Walia told them that once the ITO Chungi underpass is commissioned and the place becomes signal-free, traffic from east Delhi would pile-up at the Bahadurshah Zafar Marg crossing which would "defeat the entire purpose'' of making the Chungi signal-free. He also stressed the need for an underpass at Preet Vihar with a rotary at the ground level to ensure smooth traffic flow between Karkardooma and ITO Chungi. PWD will prepare a feasibility report of the underpass.

PWD minister Rajkumar Chauhan said: "The final nail in the flyover's coffin was DUAC. We are planning to revive it now and may go to the L-G and seek special permission to go ahead with construction without DUAC's nod the way we did for the Ring Road bypass. But the project will never get over by October 2010 when the Games are slated to happen.''

The original plan was to have a flyover at Bahadurshah Zafar Marg along with parking underneath it and two half flyovers at Ring Road to ensure that its is signal free from Madhuban Chowk. The design was made, clearances from DDA, DUAC everything obtained when the project was stalled because of the pilot BRT project. Then came a time when BRT no longer seemed to be happening and the flyover came back only to encounter stiff resistance from DUAC. PWD officials now say that with BRT not quite happening yet, it may be a good time to revive the flyover again. But as and when BRT makes a comeback, the old dilemma is bound to return, they concede.