To decongest the HUDA City Centre (HCC) junction, one of the busiest intersections in the city, the Gurugram Metropolitan Development Authority (GMDA) will construct a right-turn underpass and a bidirectional flyover. The authority plans to complete building the new infrastructure by December 2019 and opened a Request for Proposal (RFP) on Wednesday to invite bids for the project.
While the unidirectional underpass will be 705 metres in length and will be meant for traffic going from Signature Towers towards Subhash Chowk, the bidirectional flyover will be 270 metres long and will run between the sector road and MF Husain Marg. The project is expected to cost Rs 43.07 crore and will take 12 months to complete from the day construction starts.
“The HCC junction is one of the most congested stretches in the city. Hence, the GMDA proposed the construction of an underpass and a flyover as a solution. The Request for Proposal was opened for potential bidders on Wednesday. Procedures like the pre-bid meetings, response to queries, technical bids and signing agreements will follow soon. Provided there are no hurdles, the project is estimated to be completed in a year’s time from the time construction starts. The latest target for completion is December 2019,” GMDA superintending engineer for projects and infrastructure Jitender Mittal said.
GMDA officials said they expect formalities for the project to be completed by June 2019, and construction to start subsequently.
The junction is heavily congested as traffic from Signature Towers, IFFCO Chowk, Golf Course Road and Bakhtawar Chowk converges here, creating a logjam, especially during peak hours. With the HCC also being the terminating point of Delhi Metro’s yellow line, the junction here is heavily encroached upon by auto-rickshaws, e-rickshaws and cabs offering last-mile connectivity. Due to these factors, often, only one of the three lanes is available for motorists.
According to the GMDA officials, the bidirectional flyover will connect the sector road, which carries traffic from Signature Towers, and the MF Husain Marg, which carries traffic from the IFFCO Chowk Metro station. The structure will run under the Metro track and have a vertical clearance of 2.5 metres.
It is intended to help commuters bypass congestion at the entry/exit points of the Metro station, which can take an average of 20 minutes to drive past during peak hours.
The entire flyover will be 23.2 metres wide, with each carriageway being 10.5 meters wide, a 0.5 metre-wide crash barrier and a 1.2-metre-wide median.
The right-turn underpass will start 250 metres before the Metro station on the sector road, and will end just ahead of the Taj City Centre, allowing traffic heading towards Subhash Chowk to bypass HCC completely.
Turning right at this point, during peak hours, currently takes 10 to 15 minutes.
According to the RPF, the underpass’s carriageway will be 7.5 meters wide and its opening will be 8 meters wide.
Apart from the flyover and the underpass, the GMDA also intends to construct foot overbridges (FoB) at Signature Tower and near IFFCO Chowk Metro station. The two FoBs will have escalators and elevators. Currently, aside from an FoB near Max hospital, the junction has no other provisions for pedestrians.
Experts working on the traffic mobility plan on behalf of the GMDA spoke in support of the authority’s plan for the junction.
“The HCC has been termed a ‘saturated point’, which is any stretch that caters to more than 10,000 vehicles per hour. Hence, it needed a grade separation, which could only be possible through the construction of an underpass and a flyover,” Sewa Ram, an urban transport systems design expert and faculty member at the School of Planning and Architecture, said.
Sewa Ram, however, was critical of the GMDA’s oversight in not making provision for non-motorised road users—pedestrians and cyclists—running parallel to the underpass.
BOX: Infra specs
Flyover length: 270 metres
Underpass length: 705 metres
Projected cost: ₹43.07 crore
Expected completion: 12 months from the day construction commences
First Published: Nov 30, 2018 14:51 IST
