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HomeIndiaGovernanceNearly 5 yrs & 7 deadlines later, Delhi finally gets a flyover...

Nearly 5 yrs & 7 deadlines later, Delhi finally gets a flyover to reach airport faster

The Rao Tula Ram Marg flyover, expected to ease the commute between South Delhi and IGI Airport, will be inaugurated by CM Arvind Kejriwal Tuesday.

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New Delhi: Over four years and seven deadlines later, the much-hyped Rao Tula Ram Marg flyover, part of a key arterial route in Delhi, is all set to be officially inaugurated on Tuesday, 16 July.

Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal will inaugurate the 2.7-km flyover, which is expected to ease the commute between South Delhi and the Indira Gandhi International (IGI) Airport, Tuesday morning.

The three-lane flyover, construction for which began in November 2014, was completed on 30 June, according to a source in the Public Works Department (PWD).

“After the flyover was completed, we had proposed to the Delhi government in the first week of this month that 16 July could be the inauguration date,” said executive engineer O.P. Aggarwal, who worked on the project. “The date has been approved. The marg will be officially opened to the public from tomorrow onwards.”

The new flyover has come up parallel to the existing 900-metre single-carriageway flyover on Rao Tula Ram Marg’s T-junction with the Outer Ring Road near Vasant Vihar. 

The existing flyover was opened 10 years ago but was ill-equipped to handle the estimated daily flow of about 2 lakh vehicles.

‘No signage issue’

Denying that the flyover opening was delayed due to signage problems, a PWD source said, “We had done all our work by 30 June and it is wrong to say that the work was further delayed due to signage or other problems. That is because signage and road markings are the last things we do but that also takes hardly two days.”

“We were just waiting for the inauguration date to officially open it for the public,” the source added. 

The project has been facing hurdles from the beginning. In 2016, a group of influential residents had refused to sacrifice the service lane for the flyover to be built and had even moved court claiming that their private service lane was being encroached upon. They had also argued that vehicles on the flyover would be level with their top floors, affecting their privacy. The residents opposed the construction of the flyover from the time it was proposed. The Delhi High Court had dismissed their petition in 2018. 


Also read: Delhi in race to build world’s slowest flyover project at less than 400 metres a year


 

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