New four-line flyover at Dhaula Kuan interchange to be inaugurated today
Dhaula Kuan interchange
Nitin Gadkari, Union Minister for Road Transport & Highways, will inaugurate a four-lane flyover at Dhaula Kuan junction near Dhaula Kuan Metro Station on NH 8 today.
The flyover is expected to reduce waiting time at the traffic light by 30 minutes at peak hours. This is the first step towards development of an eight-lane, signal free Dhaula Kuan – Airport corridor, as stated in a press release by Ministry or Road Transport and Highways.
National Highway No.8 (New NH-48) is the prime link providing connectivity to Indira Gandhi International Airport from Delhi and NCR. The frequent traffic jams in the corridor results in travel time of 10-30 minutes in crossing this stretch of about 3 kms. NHAI has taken up development of signal free corridor from Dhaula Kuan interchange to Airport at an estimated cost of Rs.270 crore. The work on the project commenced in March, 2018.
The project has huge challenges in terms of traffic management of about 3 lakhs PCUs per day, presence of a large number of Civil and Defence utilities, shifting of Defence infrastructure and getting security clearances.
The work on the project started 274 days back, out of which work could not be executed on 136 days on account of security restrictions and environmental prohibitions. So the work of the flyover was completed in a record time of just 136 working days.
Besides the flyover, the complete signal free Dhaula Kuan – Airport corridor consists of widening of Dhaula Kuan – IGI corridor from 6-lanes to 8-lanes, a three-lane flyover from Janakpuri road to merge with NH-8, three-lane vehicular underpass at Parade Road junction, 3 PUPs, 2 VUPs and an FOB for pedestrians.