A rail overbridge, to be ready with its fresh coat of paint by next month, will sit idle for at least until the end of the year. Why?
“It leads to nowhere,” officials said.
Work on the ROB over the Delhi-Rewari line near Basai village is part of the revamp project between the Umang Bhardwaj Chowk and the Dwarka Expressway.
Originating at the railway line, the ROB is meant to connect to the expressway, some 1.5km away.
But the section (towards the expressway) where a vehicle is to get off the ROB has nothing beyond it, with construction of an underpass being carried out by the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) nearby.
The ROB work will be completed in a month, but the underpass stretch will take another four months. The area in the middle is largely uninhabited.
“Our ROB will be completed in a month’s time, but the connectivity up to Dwarka Expressway is not available as yet, so it leads to nowhere. It makes no sense for us to open the facility until NHAI has completed its work near the ROB and the expressway because the bridge cannot be used for anything,” a senior official of the Gurugram Metropolitan Development Authority (GMDA) said on Monday.
Asked about the status of construction, NHAI officials said the underpass will be opened to commuters along with the expressway in December.
“There were some complications in constructing the underpass and undertaking work in that area because it is located at the lowest point of Gurgaon, where underground water level is very high and there is a lot of pressure. As a result, the area was inundated and a lot of time was spent to de-water it before starting construction,” a senior NHAI official said.
“However, construction is now underway in full swing and work is being done round the clock. We expect the underpass to be completed by mid-December. It will be opened along with the rest of the expressway,” he said.
Residents who live in the area said they were hoping the project will finish soon.
“A lot of claims have been made about the railway overbridge and the Dwarka Expressway’s completion and opening in the past few months. We have noticed an increase in the pace of the work over the past few weeks, so we are hopeful that this stretch will actually be opened to commuters by the end of this year,” said Nirvaan Sharma, a resident of Sector 7, located around 3km away from the ROB.
Source : TOI
