NEW DELHI: The PWD’s plan to construct a flyover at the Metcalfe House intersection in north Delhi has hit its first hurdle due to a rapid rail project coming up at the same location.
Last month, Public Works Department (PWD) minister Parvesh Verma announced that a six-lane flyover will be constructed starting near the Civil Lines Trauma Centre and the DRDO office.
The project aimed to decongest the Metcalfe House T-Junction, where the Outer Ring Road and Hedgewar Road merge.
According to PWD officials, a Namo Bharat rapid rail corridor between Sarai Kale Khan ISBT in Delhi and Karnal, Haryana, is taking shape, which is crossing at a point where the flyover is supposed to be constructed; hence, a relook at the alignments of the flyover will be done.
“The Namo Bharat corridor has matured recently, and NCRTC has asked for a no-objection certificate from us...so we will have to see the feasibility of the existing plan of the Metcalfe House flyover.
“If required, another feasibility study to construct a double-decker flyover will be done,” a PWD official said.
Hence, the PWD has been unable to float the tender for the construction of the flyover, even though a feasibility study was approved by the Delhi chief secretary earlier this year, the official added.
However, the NCRTC sources said their corridor was being planned much earlier than the flyover plan was approved. “Yes, we have approached the state government for the required permission for the Namo Bharat corridor,” the source confirmed and added that a middle path has to be found since both projects are for the public welfare.
The 680-metre-long six-lane flyover, with back-to-back U-turns underneath the flyover, was proposed to ease the traffic congestion for Civil Lines and nearby areas while streamlining interstate movement towards northern states such as Himachal
Pradesh and Punjab.