NEW DELHI: After a long wait, the Prime Minister will throw open the Pragati Maidan main tunnel road and five underpasses to the public on Sunday.
“The main tunnel and five underpasses will be inaugurated by the Prime Minister on Sunday; we have initiated the arrangements for the inaugural function,” said a high-ranking official of India Trade Promotion Organisation (ITPO).
According to sources, as the project belongs to ITPO, an enterprise of the Union commerce department, minister for commerce and industry Piyush Goyal will be present along with his housing and urban affairs counterpart, Hardeep Singh Puri, on the opening day.
The entire project to decongest traffic in and around Pragati Maidan was envisaged as an integral part of the main Pragati Maidan redevelopment project to offer commuters a smooth access to the new complex, which is under-construction. The transit corridor, which was to be completed in March 2019, will connect India Gate to Ring Road, and starting at Purana Quila, it will be the widest such stretch in the national capital.
A digitally controlled urban traffic tunnel, it will have a control room, and a telephone and public announcement system inside. Keeping in mind the waterlogging problem during the rainy season, the tunnel has seven underground sumps to collect and remove water coming inside. The sumps are equipped with drainage pumping sensors to ensure automatic functioning.
Keeping in mind safety issues, around 100 CCTV cameras have been installed inside the tunnel, while large German-make exhaust fans will be used for ventilation.
Built at an estimated cost of Rs 923 crore, the tunnel and six underpasses — four on Mathura Road and two on Bhairon Marg — will help reduce snarls for commuters using the ITO intersection. The last underpass will be opened four-five weeks later as some work are still pending.
One of the major challenges faced by the construction agencies is to build one of the underpasses under the railways lines of New Delhi and Nizamuddin. They finally used the “box pushing” technique to complete the task without disturbing the surface traffic.
The whole tunnel has unique mural artwork representing six seasons through elements like sun, moon, stars, zodiac symbols and festivals depicting Indian culture. At the ground level, sculptures made out of granite have been installed at traffic islands to enhance the landscape.
