NHAI, PWD pass the buck as Ashram suffers

Thursday, March 31, 2011

There seems to be no immediate relief for commuters caught in the traffic mess at Ashram Chowk. The NHAI, which had appointed a consultant to find solutions to decongest the crossing, has abandoned it. It claims the proposed Kalindi Kunj bypass will offload traffic at the crossing and, hence, there is no need on its part to go head with the decongestion plan. 

A couple of months after NHAI floated a tender to engage a consultant for preparing the decongestion plan, Delhi PWD also invited bids for a similar work in September 2009. However, the latter scrapped the tender saying it would only be a duplication of what NHAI was doing. 

An NHAI official said that after the consultant had submitted the first part of the study report, the consultancy was terminated. "The NH-2, which is under our jurisdiction, starts from the Ashram crossing below the flyover. Since the snarl had become unmanageable, we had engaged a consultant to find a solution. Now with the Delhi PWD reviving the Kalindi Kunj bypass, the traffic heading towards Faridabad would largely use the new road," the officer said. 

Sources in Delhi PWD said that they are only consulting a firm for the project for now, and it would take time to award the work. This means, it would take a few more years for the new road to become operational. While the bypass road is likely to improve the traffic flow below the flyover at this congested crossing, there is no relief in sight for the Ring Road traffic. 

This issue has brought to light how there is complete lack of coordination among authorities, thus aggravating the problems. "Ring Road is not under our jurisdiction. The agency concerned (PWD) should find a solution to this mess. We are confined only to the highway and not the flyover," said the NHAI official. 

The flyover on the Ring Road at the Ashram crossing gets choked during peak hours on all weekdays. "There is multiplicity of authority, and that's resulting in lack of coordination. The NHAI is doing what it deems fit even as the mess is worsening. And this is not just limited to Delhi but also the adjoining towns of Fariadabd and Gurgaon," pointed out Rohit Baluja, president of IRTE. 

The Ashram Chowk crisis has come as an indicator of how a critical congestion scare is looming large over the capital. Transport experts say Delhi is well on its way to becoming the next Bangkok, notorious for nightmarish traffic jams. There are also ominous indicators across the city of intersections and flyovers breaching their designed carrying capacity a lot earlier than estimated.

Original news source http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/delhi/NHAI-PWD-pass-the-buck-as-Ashram-suffers/articleshow/7828476.cms