Airport-bound commuters from south Delhi and Noida will have to wait till the first week of July to ride on the newly constructed 2.7 km flyover running parallel to the operational Rao Tula Ram (RTR) flyover as the facility will not be opened this month, a senior official of the public works department (PWD) official said.

The delay is because of “technical difficulties” faced by authorities in fixing signage on the elevated road.

The PWD had earlier aimed for a June-end opening. Officials of the PWD – the agency that constructed the flyover – said the facility would be inaugurated next month. Trial run on the flyover, scheduled from Thursday, has also been delayed. It will now be conducted after installation of signage.

The flyover branches out of the Munirka flyover and ends before the Army Research and Referral Hospital near Subroto Park, near National Highway-8.

The elevated road is expected to improve connectivity to the airport from south Delhi and Noida/Ghaziabad. The flyover has faced a delay of almost three years. Construction began in November 2014 and was scheduled to be completed by November 2016 but missed at least six deadlines.

A senior PWD official familiar with the developments said while the facility is ready, work related to installation of signage remains.

The official said signage installation usually takes a day or two but in this project, they are facing technical difficulties. “Conventionally, we fix signages on crash barriers of the flyover. But in this project, the signages are heavy and it is difficult to fix them on crash barriers. We cannot take a risk as commuters may get hurt if the signages are not fixed properly,” the official, not authorised to speak to the media, said.

“We hope to complete signage-related work by Sunday. After this, we will conduct a safety audit and then a two-day trial run will be carried out from Monday or Tuesday. The flyover will be opened next month,” the official said.

The trial run will be conducted under restricted timings during peak traffic hours in mornings and evenings to assess the load-bearing capacity of the flyover and check other technical aspects as well.
The three-lane elevated road is expected to reduce congestion on Outer Ring Road, RTR Marg and Ring Road as most of the airport-bound commuters use these stretches.

According to Delhi Traffic Police estimates, the stretch – Munirka to RTR Marg – sees around 1.5lakh vehicles daily. Most of the traffic gets stuck at the foot of the existing RTR flyover, trying to manoeuvre their way onto the flyover.

Once the flyover is opened, it will significantly decongest Outer Ring Road and cut travel time from Hauz Khas to the airport by at least 15 to 20 minutes by reducing around 20% of congestion between Munirka and the Army Hospital.

First Published: Jun 27, 2019 05:49 IST