The construction of a pedestrian subway at Shankar Chowk will commence within the next two months, Gurugram deputy commissioner (DC) Nishant Kumar Yadav said on Wednesday.
Yadav, along with officials of the Raahgiri Foundation, the Gurugram Metropolitan Development Authority (GMDA), Gurugram police, the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI), and DLF carried out a joint road safety inspection at three key junctions — Shankar Chowk, IFFCO Chowk, and Hero Honda Chowk — on the Delhi-Gurgaon Expressway.
The three junctions are considered among the most unsafe spots for pedestrians in Gurugram. According to Gurugram Vision Zero (GVZ) data, 31 fatalities were recorded at Shankar Chowk between 2017 and 2021, 21 at Hero Honda Chowk, and 16 at Shankar Chowk during the same time period. More than 50 of the 68 fatalities at these three junctions involved pedestrians. GVZ is a road safety program of the district administration sup-ported by Nagarro and Raahgiri Foundation.
According to administration officials, a team of Raahgiri Foundation, an organisation supporting sustainable transport, told the deputy commissioner that due to the presence of a large number of MNCs, a lot of pedestrians cross the national highway 48 at Shankar Chowk without any amenities which is leading to accidents and fatalities.
“A proposal was received from the DLF Foundation to make a subway between DLF Phase 3 and Cyber Park at Shankar Chowk, which has been approved by the GMDA. The construction work will begin in the next two months,” Yadav said.
The DC also directed GMDA officials to work on the possibility of constructing a foot-over-bridge (FOB) at Shankar Chowk for the convenience of pedestrians going from the HSIIDC office to DLF Phase 2. He said that since the traffic from Guru-gram to Delhi is heavy along these two points in the evening, a FOB will be of great convenience to commuters. Gurugram traffic police informed DC Yadav that IFFCO Chowk is heavily congested and pedestrians risk themselves while crossing certain stretches. Yadav said that Raahgiri Foundation has made a design for the junction following a safety survey. Based on the survey, temporary traffic signals will be installed under the IFFCO Chowk flyover for smooth transition of vehicles.
Yadav also observed that wrong-side driving is a major issue at Hero Honda Chowk He directed GMDA officials to place bollards and create a makeshift service lane near the Delhi-Jaipur carriageway to prevent wrong-side driving. The administration since February has made at least four visits to the junction in the hope of finding a solution to the wrong-side driving issue. Wrong-side driving is a common issue at the junction as the next U-turn is located three kilometers on either side of the expressway.
Flyovers, underpasses, FOBs, and subways have been con-structed over the past five years at these junctions, but pedes-trian safety and traffic chaos continues to be major issues.
Source : Ht
