The 18.7km section of the Dwarka Expressway in Gurgaon is set to open for traffic in two weeks, easing travel between new sectors and NH-8. Despite delays and safety audits, Union Minister Rao Inderjit Singh secured approval for its opening after discussions with Nitin Gadkari.
The expressway’s Gurgaon portion, an eight-lane fast corridor, will make the journey from new sectors to NH-8 and other parts of the city easier and less time consuming.
Construction for the expressway in the city was completed last year but it wasn’t opened to traffic as the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) cited a pending safety audit.
The remaining 10km of the expressway in Delhi is likely to take another five to six months to complete.
Gurgaon commuters – most of them residents of sectors that lie along the expressway – have been demanding that they should be permitted to use the eway. Motorists have also been making it past the barricades put up on the eway and the cloverleaf intersection that connects it to Southern Peripheral Road (SPR) and NH-8. “Work on the Delhi portion of Dwarka expressway will take another 5-6 months to complete. But work on the Gurgaon portion is complete and it should be open for traffic movement for the convenience of residents… Union minister Gadkari has approved it and directed NHAI to inspect the eway and open it,” Singh said.
An NHAI official on Tuesday said the safety inspection was ongoing. Officials had initially said that the Gurgaon leg of the eway was likely to open in June 2023. It was delayed to August, then the end of the year, and so on.
The topic has been a sore point for residents of new sectors, which are home to dozens of large housing societies though the area lacks public transportation and cabs are difficult to come by. Officegoers have complained about navigating diversions on unpaved roads and haphazard traffic to get to their work in the commercial hub of Gurgaon along NH-8. Some also have to continue paying toll at the Kherki Daula plaza.
As a result, the cloverleaf intersection sees traffic moving in both directions despite barricades, making the stretch prone to accidents. In May 2023, a 56-year-old woman died after the car she was traveling in collided with another on the expressway. The other car was being driven on the wrong side.
Nitish Sharma, from Sector 84, said the eway should be opened at the earliest. “After years of missing deadlines, the road is ready but people aren’t allowed to use it. It should be opened to traffic immediately,” he said.
The district administration had also written to NHAI last month to open the expressway and its cloverleaf for traffic. The entire expressway, once completed, will decongest NH-8 and give an alternative route to commute between Delhi and Gurgaon.
On Tuesday, the Gurgaon MP also brought up the issue of delays in construction of an elevated road between Hero Honda Chowk and Umang Bhardwaj Chowk with Gadkari. Singh said he pointed out the claims by both GMDA and NHAI that it’s the other agency’s job to shift existing infrastructure on the route.
Source : TOI