Gurgaon: The much-awaited elevated U-turn flyover near Shankar Chowk will become operational on November 1, which is observed as Haryana Day, officials from the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) said. The project is aimed at decongesting the Delhi-Gurgaon Expressway, especially near DLF CyberHub and Udyog Vihar.
Construction work is already complete and NHAI began trial runs on the flyover on October 15. Project director Shashi Bhushan said the flyover was supposed to become operational in June, but missed the deadline due to several reasons. “The construction has now been completed and the flyover will be ready for traffic after getting clearances from our safety and standards committee. The quality of the flyover is being put to test during the ongoing trial run,” he said.
The three-lane elevated U-turn flyover near Shankar Chowk will facilitate traffic coming from the Ambience Mall and Cyber City side headed towards Delhi. Earlier, the existing U-turn under Shankar Chowk used to be choked during peak office hours. Pedestrians wanting to cross the expressway too faced a challenging time due to heavy traffic.
The 455-metre-long flyover has been built at a cost of Rs 58.96 crore. While NHAI contributed 75% of the amount, the remaining was borne by the Gurugram Metropolitan Development Authority.
According to officials, streetlights have already been installed on the flyover and NHAI has applied to the discom for electricity connection. The highways authority hopes they will be functional before the flyover is inaugurated on Haryana Day.
Commuters expressed relief that they will no longer be caught up in snarls at Shankar Chowk. “The stretch used to witness long traffic jams before the lockdown. While there is relatively less traffic these days, I hope that the opening of this flyover will resolve the perennial traffic troubles at this spot,” said Kartik Sharma, who works in CyberHub.