Gurugram: Basai Chowk flyover opens, slab holds up ROB metres away

GURUGRAM: As chief minister Manohar Lal Khattar inaugurated the Basai Chowk flyover on Saturday, another facility - a railway overbridge - a part of the same Rs 114 crore project lay incomplete a few metres away. According to officials, its construction will be complete by mid-November, but its connectivity to Dwarka Expressway is also missing, with commuters unlikely to see an opening this month.

The ROB will run over the Delhi-Rewari railway line near Basai village and go up to Dwarka Expressway. It will also provide commuters access to an underpass under construction below the expressway, meant to provide connectivity to its other side.
Although construction of both the flyover and the ROB began at the same time, the work on the ROB got held up due to a delay in obtaining permission from the railway authorities .
Currently, a slab over the railway line remains to be put in place for the ROB to be ready. "The major work on the ROB is already done. Only a single slab needs fixing over the railway line, for which we have received permission. The railway line will probably be shut down in phases from November 10 to 15 to complete the work," said a GMDA official.
Even after that, commuters will not be able to use the ROB as it currently goes nowhere. "The ROB connects to Dwarka Expressway and the underpass running below it. Until the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) completes its work in that area, there is no point in opening the ROB since it leads to nothing. After that work, we will open the ROB," said the official.
NHAI officials said that work on that section of the expressway was going on in full swing until recently when the ban on construction activities under the Graded Response Action Plan (GRAP) stage 4 came into force in NCR.
"We have suspended work but expect to complete it, especially that underpass, in the next couple of months and open the same to commuters," said a senior NHAI official.
Speaking to TOI last week, NHAI officials had said that the Haryana portion of the Dwarka Expressway would open in phases over the next four months, with the whole stretch accessible to commuters only by January or February next year.