9 more months of jams en route to Naraina

Sunday , June 14, 2009
source:http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com

Commuters using the Naraina stretch on Ring Road will have to negotiate massive jams for at least 10 more months as the ongoing flyover project is expected to be fully operational only by March next year. The coming few months will be more critical since the road space for traffic will shrink further due to fixing of concrete segments on one carriageway of the flyover.

The 1.6km-long flyover project at the Naraina crossing has already been delayed by over six months. Public Works Department (PWD) officials blame it on less availability of space to carry out construction work besides the huge traffic flow on this stretch. The department is now seeking approval from the traffic police to put a restriction on the height of vehicles using the stretch for at least one month when girder launchers would be pressed into service.

Officials will also seek police help to divert the traffic during this period to reduce pile-ups on the Dhaula Kuan-Naraina carriageway. "There is an option of diverting the traffic from Brar Square. It will be very difficult to manage the present volume of traffic when road space is reduced further for a limited period,'' PWD sources said.

But the good news for commuters is that the Dhaula Kuan-Mayapuri carriageway of the flyover would be operational by October. After this, it will take another six months to complete the other carriageway. "As soon as one carriageway becomes operational in the first phase, we will get enough space to carry out work on the other side,'' said another official.

According to department officials, this has been a difficult project since the busy Ring Road can't be blocked completely to carry out work. "Right now, there is only nine meter road available for the vehicles,'' said a senior PWD official.

The over 1.5km-long stretch has been witnessing major snarls on both the carriageways, especially during morning and evening peak hours. Pile-ups from Brar Square up to the Mayapuri flyover approximately 2.5-3km during evening peak hours is a permanent feature. The jams on the other carriageway during morning peak hours are equally worse. Traffic snarls extend up to the Raja Garden crossing from Naraina village as a bulk of the traffic heading towards Gurgaon, Faridabad and south Delhi takes this route.

"We have been facing this ordeal for the past two years but the work looks nowhere near completion,'' said Sunil Singh Yadav, a resident of Naraina.

The original deadline for the Rs 120 crore project was December 2008. Responding to why the project missed its deadline by a wide margin despite the project completion period being fixed after a feasibility study and preparation of DPR, a PWD official said, "When a project is finally executed on the ground the realty is different from the projections.''

He further added that in such cases when there's `no reason' to hold the private contractor responsible for delay the deadline is extended. "The new deadline will be fixed as the project nears completion,'' said the official.

The flyover project was envisaged to make the entire stretch along Ring Road from Shalimar Bagh to Moolchand flyover signal free.