Commuters at Atul Kataria Chowk will have to wait longer for traffic movement at the junction to be streamlined, it will take the public works department (PWD) at least one more month to construct the underpass planned there, officials said.
PWD is executing the work on behalf of the Gurugram Metropolitan Development Authority (GMDA). Haryana chief minister Manohar Lal Khattar visited the site on Tuesday and directed GMDA officials to ensure that the facility is ready by October 2.
The underpass is part of a wider traffic improvement project for the intersection that also involved the construction of a 731m long, four-lane flyover linking Gurgaon bus stand and Kapashera, as well as service roads. While the flyover was opened to commuters last month, the revamped service roads were opened in the presence of the CM on Tuesday. The official inauguration of the project, however, will take place once the underpass is also complete.
“Atul Kataria Chowk is amongst the busiest junctions of Gurgaon and sees heavy traffic flow on a daily basis. The flyover is open to commuters and will offer greater connectivity between Delhi and Gurgaon via Kapashera border. The service roads are also now open for public use,” said Khattar on Tuesday.
“The flyover and service roads will help in curbing traffic congestion on this intersection,” he added.
Khattar, during his visit, also reviewed work under way on the 1km long, four-lane bidirectional underpass at Atul Kataria Chowk from Sheetla Mata Mandir road to Maharana Pratap Chowk. Its construction has been held up for several months due to the shifting of a stormwater drain from the underpass site to the service road towards Sheetla Mata Mandir.
According to PWD officials, with the drain shifting finally complete, work on the tunnel and approach road towards Sheetla Mata Mandir is in progress. The approach road on the Maharana Pratap Chowk side had already been completed earlier, along with the construction of the roof slab and the wall of the underpass.
“Construction of the underpass was delayed due to a stormwater drain that we discovered while digging for the project, which had to subsequently be shifted. This task has finally been completed and we started work on the underpass again around 10 days ago,” said a senior PWD official.
“Prior to that, our focus was on service roads for the flyover. With these completed and the drain shifted as well, work on the underpass is now under way in full swing. The facility will most certainly be ready by October 2,” he said.
Atul Kataria Chowk is among the busiest intersections in the city since it is the spot where vehicles travelling from several critical destinations, such as Huda City Centre metro station, the railway station, Gurgaon bus stand, and Sheetla Mata Mandir, intersect.
Construction on the project, estimated to cost Rs 81.4 crore, started in November 2019, but has been repeatedly delayed due to utility shifting work, restrictions put in place during the lockdowns, and bans on construction to curb pollution in Delhi-NCR during winter months.
This is the second time in four months that Khattar has set a timeline for the completion of the Atul Kataria Chowk revamp project. In April, while inaugurating the revamped Huda City Centre junction, he had claimed that Atul Kataria Chowk too would be ready by June 2022. He had also stated that the Mahavir Chowk revamp and the link road from Umang Bhardwaj Chowk and Dwarka Expressway would be completed by July 2022 and June 2022, respectively. None of these claims have materialised on ground, with work still under way on the latter two projects as well.
Source : TOI
