Bajghera underpass to miss June 15 deadline

An underpass being constructed at the Bajghera railway crossing to ease the commute between New Palam Vihar and Palam Vihar is set to miss the June 15 deadline.

The New Palam Vihar and Palam Vihar colonies are connected by a road that crosses the Delhi-Gurgaon railway track at Bajghera.

The road also connects Gurugram with Delhi, and sees heavy local and long-distance traffic, which has increased exponentially over the last decade. Traffic flow is hindered at the Bajghera crossing, which has a manual signal, managed by the Indian Railways.

In October 2016, the Public Works Department (PWD), Haryana, planned a flyover and an underpass at this junction for seamless flow of traffic, and the construction began in December, with a deadline of December 2018.

The central portion of the underpass and the flyover is being constructed by the Indian Railways, which in April had set a June 15 deadline of opening the underpass for local traffic. Approach roads for the flyover and underpass are being constructed by the PWD. The 45-metre long underpass is meant for light vehicles, such as cars, jeeps, auto-rickshaws. Stating that it has completed work on the underpass, the Indian Railways, on Tuesday, said it is now waiting for the PWD to complete the approach roads on either side.

“We have completed the underpass work and are waiting for the state government (PWD) to complete the approach roads. We will speak with the state government officials in this regard so that we can open it at the earliest,” Northern Railways chief engineer Desh Rattan Gupta said, adding that it would not be possible to open the section by June 15 and the ball is in PWD’s court.

PWD executive engineer Narender Kumar said, “Shifting utilities, such as sewer lines, water and electricity, took many months causing delay in construction. Now we are trying our best to complete entire project by July end.”

After the Bajghera crossing was closed for traffic, the residents of Palam Vihar, New Palam Vihar, Ashok Vihar, sectors 99-115 and several surrounding areas only had the option of using the Daulatabad flyover and the manually managed Chauma railway crossing, both of which were highly congested to begin with.

Palam Vihar resident Mahesh Singh said, “It has been more than 30 months since the Bajghera crossing was closed for traffic. We are forced to travel 3 kilometres extra to reach Palam Vihar. The work is still underway and it looks like it will be months before it is opened.”

First Published: Jun 12, 2019 04:53 IST