At Khajuri Khas chowk in northeast Delhi, congestion is a round-the-clock problem, owing to the intermingling of local and interstate traffic. In order to streamline this chaotic traffic, the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) is planning to construct an underpass along with an elevated corridor at the intersection. With this, the roads at this junction will crisscross at four levels — an underpass, at grade, a flyover and an elevated corridor.
An elevated Metro track is also proposed at the intersection as part of the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC)’s Phase-4 network.
The NHAI is already constructing a 155km high-speed corridor, the National Highway 709B, between Akshardham in Delhi and Saharanpur in UP. The 14.7km elevated corridor passing through Khajuri Khas will connect Akshardham with the Delhi-UP border, and will be part of the NH-709B corridor.
The highways authority has also decided to integrate the Delhi government’s flyover project at Shastri Park, tenders for which were floated recently, with the elevated corridor to cater to the traffic coming from the Inter State Bus Terminal (ISBT) at Kashmere Gate.
The access-controlled corridor will be constructed along Pushta Road — the main road connecting east Delhi and UP Border—and passing through densely populated areas of Geeta Colony, Shastri Park, Khajuri Khas.
Khajuri Khas is one of the busiest intersections in Delhi with a traffic volume of 13,000 passenger car units (PCU). Currently, there is a flyover at the intersection on Wazirabad Road, which connects Signature Bridge with the rest of northeast Delhi areas. Traffic moves on two levels—a flyover and at grade —at the intersection.
To decongest Pushta Road, which has a peak hour traffic volume of 7,000-9,000 PCU, NHAI will construct an underpass at the intersection.
RP Singh, project director of the corridor, NHAI, said, “We will construct the underpass at the intersection as well as the elevated corridor to ease local traffic movement on Pushta Road. But we will get our own plan and design made.”
Once completed, the intersection will have vehicular traffic moving on four different levels—underpass, at grade, flyover and the elevated corridor. The intersection will also have an elevated Metro corridor under Phase-4, which will be parallel to the flyover.
The Delhi government’s Public Works Department (PWD) officials say an underpass at the intersection is a must, to handle the heavy local traffic on Pushta Road. This will smoothen traffic moving between Shastri Park and the UP border. “We have requested the NHAI to construct the underpass, as the elevated corridor will not address the congestion caused by local traffic. We have got the project approved from the Unified Traffic and Transportation Infrastructure (Planning and Engineering) Centre (UTTIPEC) in 2017,” a senior PWD official said.
The NHAI and DRMC have reworked the height of their respective corridors at the intersection. “The issue has been discussed and resolved with NHAI. The Metro viaduct will go below the proposed elevated corridor,” a DMRC spokesperson said.
“We will increase the height of our corridor by three metres and the DMRC will reduce the height of its track by 1.5m at the intersection so that the two corridors can be constructed without any hassle,” Singh said.
At Shastri Park, PWD is constructing a flyover near Zero Pushta on Dharmpura Road, which caters to the traffic coming from Kashmere Gate ISBT.
“The UP-bound traffic reaches Pushta Road from this intersection. We had requested NHAI to provide this traffic a direct access to the elevated corridor,” a PWD official said.
The suggestion has been accepted. Singh said, “NHAI will provide the ramps on both side at Shastri Park junction for traffic coming from ISBT to get on an off the elevated corridor.”
NHAI’s elevated corridor is expected to take the interstate traffic load off Pushta Road.
“The elevated corridor will not cater to the local traffic. There is a need for a detailed plan for local traffic to decongest Pushta Road, which is an arterial road catering to large number of residential neighbourhoods with multiple entry and exit points. As it is an access-controlled corridor, local traffic will not benefit from it,” Sewa Ram, professor of road transport, School of Planning and Architecture, said.
First Published: Mar 10, 2019 23:41 IST
