New Road to speed up South Delhi Traffic to Faridabad

[dheerajjain]

http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes ... on-mg-road

NEW DELHI: In what will be a major relief to south Delhi commuters bound for Gurgaon and Faridabad, Delhi government's public works department is undertaking construction of a four-lane road from Mehrauli-Gurgaon Road to Gurgaon-Faridabad road.

This 9km corridor is expected to help commuters from Mehrauli, Greater Kailash, Chhattarpur, Saket etc avoid jams on NH-8 and NH-2. The Rs 597-crore project will be funded by the urban development ministry, said officials.

"The road, called Mandi Road, exists now as a two-lane road riddled with potholes and without a central verge. Widening this road to a four-lane double carriageway will help commuters bypass the more long-winding and congested routes currently available," said PWD minister Raj Kumar Chauhan.

The road will begin on MG Road, go through Gwala Pahari and end at the Gurgaon-Faridabad road, providing the shortest connect with Faridabad from south Delhi, said officials.

RITES is conducting a topographic survey and is expected to submit a report within a fortnight. It is simultaneously carrying out soil and material testing and a traffic survey. "After the topographic survey is conducted, the alignment will be fixed and land acquisition will be decided accordingly. There are many farmhouses along the route," said a senior PWD official.

The right of way (ROW) of the existing road varies from 12-20 metres. As per the master plan of Delhi, the proposed right of way of this road in 60 metres. "An estimate of Rs 597 crore was sent by PWD to DDA on August 29. Of this, land acquisition alone is expected to cost Rs 400 crore, while the rest will include civil, electric, horticulture, consultancy work etc," added the official.

The width of the carriageway on each side is proposed to be 7.5 metres, with an additional service lane of 4.5 metres on each side and a footpath and drain of 2.25 metres.

The financial estimate submitted by PWD has been checked by DDA and was discussed at a meeting of the project approval committee on September 4 at the urban development ministry.

"Since the estimate figure is tentative and likely to change based on the detailed project report (DPR) to be finalized by the consultant, the proposal was approved in principle and Rs 150 cr (around 80% of construction cost) approved for release from the ministry," said a source.

To avoid delays, financial bids were invited only from government organizations like CRRI and RITES and DIMTS and RITES were appointed as consultants on October 16. The consultants have been given two months to submit the land acquisition plan, two months to submit the draft DPR for phase I (within available ROW), one month to submit the final DPR for phase I and another four months to submit DPR for phase 2 (with 30 metres ROW).