NEW DELHI: In what could provide some relief to commuters, another lane on Lala Lajpat Rai Marg near CGO Complex was opened to traffic on Monday. A cave-in on the stretch last November had restricted vehicles to one lane and had since then proved a big headache for motorists who drive on the route. But with the heavy volume of traffic on the road, the cops feared the spot would continue to be a traffic bottleneck despite the second lane taking part of the load.
Police will continue to allow only cars and light vehicles on this section of Lala Lajpat Rai Marg and all heavy vehicles will be diverted. On March 17, officials of the Central Public Works Department had assured TOI that they would open another lane for traffic by March 28, and if all went well, would have restored the entire road by April 15.
The work to make a second lane accessible to traffic was completed on Sunday. A CPWD official said, “Since last Wednesday, our teams have been working hard on this. For the last 2-3 days, we have worked 24x7. In fact, senior officials were on ground monitoring the situation till the wee hours of Monday. We understand the pain of the commuters, which is why we wanted to make changes that would facilitate the opening of another lane to ease the passage for commuters”.
The official also claimed that around 75% of the road restoration work was over. “We have completed most of the work and we will wind up the remaining work by April 15 so that the entire segment can be opened to public use,” the official added.
Traffic police officers confirmed the reopening of one more lane after CPWD officials inspected the repair work being done on the road. “This is definitely a relief, but since the volume of traffic on this road is very heavy and hundreds of office goers are regular users, it will continue to remain a choke point for some time,” noted an officer. “On Monday, the traffic was smoother and we received fewer calls related to congestion. CPWD has assured us it will open the entire road by next month so until then, the diversions already in place will continue.”
On November 18 last year, a portion of the road caved in, adversely affecting the traffic movement in and around the area. Delhi Traffic Policewas quick to issue an advisory and divert vehicles on the route and later also openeda single lane for the use of light vehicles.
