Rethink airport–Palam Vihar route, have old Gurgaon-Delhi alignment: RWA collective writes to CMs, Union minister Khattar

The collective submitted a detailed memorandum to Union Minister for Housing and Urban Affairs Manohar Lal Khattar, Haryana Chief Minister Nayab Singh Saini, and Delhi Chief Minister Rekha Gupta, along with the metro authorities in the two states.

The organisation warned that the Palam Vihar alignment “would bypass Gurgaon’s true economic and mobility spine” and risk becoming “a costly white elephant — financially unviable and socially irrelevant, with little or no economic benefit”. It pointed out that connectivity to Palam Vihar via the Airport Line would duplicate existing expansion plans of the Delhi and Gurgaon Metro lines.

“The corridor — from IGI Airport to Samalkha to Sadar Gurugram — is the beating heart of the city’s economy,” said Kundan Lal Sharma, chairperson of Jaago Gurugram and former joint secretary to the Government of India.

“Ignoring it would be a monumental policy blunder. Every day, lakhs of workers and residents endure choking congestion and poisonous air. A metro line through this corridor would not just ease traffic but restore human dignity, improve productivity, and advance India’s climate goals.”

He pointed out that the demand for metro connectivity along Kapashera, Dundahera, Udyog Vihar, and adjoining sectors had been pending for over two decades.

Residents raising the demand not for the first time

In 2023, too, RWAs from Sector 21 and adjoining areas submitted memoranda signed by over 10,000 residents to the then Union Minister for Housing and Urban Affairs and the chief minister of Haryana, but to no avail.

“This is not a new plea; it is an overdue correction,” said Prakash Lamba, president of Sector 21 RWA. “The government knows the pain points; all we ask is that they listen to those who live this chaos every day.”

Every day, over one lakh vehicles crawl through the Old Delhi–Gurgaon Road, sharing space with thousands of diesel autos ferrying workers and domestic staff between Delhi and Gurgaon, he added. “The outcome: suffocating air, endless jams, and lost human hours.”

“What should be a 15-minute drive takes over an hour,” said Sunil Yadav of Dundahera. “We breathe diesel fumes all day. The air burns our eyes and throats.”

A Kapashera-based entrepreneur said, “Our customers and staff are stuck in jams daily. The metro through this corridor is not a luxury — it is survival infrastructure.”

Residents cite travel woes

It can take nearly five hours a day to travel to and from offices in New Delhi, residents said.

A metro line from IGI via Samalkha, Kapashera, Dundahera, and Sectors 20–22 up to Sadar and Sector 10 would link Delhi’s airport and business districts with Gurgaon’s industrial core and the Central Secretariat, cut vehicular load and travel time, enhance logistics efficiency, sharply reduce emissions and fuel consumption, Jaago Gurugram argues.

Dr Pooja Tarar, an active RWA member, said, “Thousands of factory workers, guards and other employees travel daily in unsafe, overcrowded autos. The right metro alignment can change their lives — replacing indignity with safety and opportunity.”

Officegoers Aarti Singh and Soniya Yadav said, “We have to endure unwelcome touches and inappropriate behaviour in overcrowded DTC buses while travelling to our offices in Connaught Place. Every ride feels unsafe and humiliating.”

The collective in its letter stressed that a failure to act now “would lock the region into years of congestion, wasteful expenditure, and lost opportunity”.

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