The 21km-long Sohna elevated road, under construction for nearly four years now, would be fully opened to commuters by March-end this year, according to the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI).
The 12km-long stretch between Badshapur and Sohna, package 2 of the project, is almost ready and will be thrown open this month. However, package 1, involving the 9km-long stretch running between Rajiv Chowk and Badshapur, will take a little longer, expected to be ready by March-end.
“The entire project is on track to be completed by March. We expect to complete package 2 this month, and package 1 will be ready by the end of March. The two portions of the elevated road are under development as separate packages, so we can open the stretch under package 2 while still finishing work on package 1,” said a senior NHAI official who did not want to be named. Nearly 95% of the work on package 2 costing Rs 606 crore, and 75% of the work on package 1 costing Rs 690 crore is complete, added the official.
The Rs 1,300-crore Sohna elevated road project got conceptualised to create signal-free connectivity between Rajiv Chowk and Sohna and allow people to avoid the busy intersections along the stretch, including Vatika Chowk. In addition, the elevated road is likely to bring down the current three-hour travel time between Gurgaon and Alwar to less than two hours.
The work on the project had started in 2018, with an initial deadline of 25 months. The project, however, got delayed due to some complications in the shifting of utilities, the pandemic lockdown and repeated construction bans over high pollution levels. Additionally, the project got delayed because of an August 2020 accident involving the collapse of a 40m spine of the elevated road. Subsequently, the NHAI had suspended work on the stretch after finding out that the concessionaires of the two packages had been flouting safety norms and resuming the construction only after a month.
In September last year, road transport and highways minister Nitin Gadkari had declared the latest March 2022 deadline for the project while in Gurgaon for an inspection of the Delhi-Mumbai Expressway, which is currently under construction. He had then stated that the Sohna elevated road would also connect to the Delhi-Mumbai Expressway that may be ready by 2023.
Source : TOI
