Road reopens for traffic from ITO to East Delhi

Monday, May 25, 2009
source:http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com

There's some relief for commuters headed to East Delhi, Noida and Ghaziabad. With the Public Works Department (PWD) opening the ITO-Laxmi Nagar carriageway on Monday evening, the traffic coming from ITO won't have to take a long detour to reach these destinations.

Officials said that the other carriageway from Vikas Marg to ITO would be opened either in the last week of June or first week of July even as the ongoing work on ITO chungi for signal-free traffic movement is expected to be completed by August. Once the work is completed, there will be 12 lanes six on each carriageway.

"We could open this stretch as the existing road was wide enough. We had to widen it only by 5 meters. The other stretch from Vikas Marg will have to be widened by 9 meters,'' said a senior PWD official. He added that the excavation of soil for the underpass project would start from Tuesday.

The entire ITO Chungi underpass project is expected to be completed in next two months. Though the Rs 73.7 crore signal-free underpass project had the original deadline of December 2008, later it was extended to June 2009. Now officials admit that the stretch would be completely signal free only by August.

The project includes construction of an eight-lane underpass across Vikas Marg. It also features construction of four clover leaves for free right-turn. The traffic turning right would use the slip roads to reach their respective clover leaves and finally join the underpass. Straight traffic between Noida and Gandhi Nagar would also use the underpass.

Two more new slip roads, including a cycle track and footpath for free left-turn movement from ITO to Geeta Colony and Akshardham Temple to ITO, are also part of the project.

Moreover, the existing slip roads would be improved for free traffic movement on left from Geeta Colony to Laxmi Nagar and Laxmi Nagar to Akshardham. For pedestrian safety, three foot over-bridges across Pushta road at Kishan Kunj, Lalita Park and towards Akshardham are also being built.