Barapullah road opened,trucks forbidden

The drive from Sarai Kale Khan to AIIMS,which is at least 12 km on the shortest route,has now been reduced to eight km with the opening of the Barapullah road. Built at a cost of nearly Rs 500 crore,it can be utilised only by buses and light motor vehicles. Trucks have been banned from plying on the elevated road,the official said.

“Buses will have to take a compulsory right turn near the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium to reach there from the Sarai Kale Khan side. The road will decongest the Ring Road near Ashram and Bhairon Marg to a great extent,” the official said.

Sarvagya Srivastava,the PWD project manager who supervised the construction of the elevated road,said that nowhere in the country has a project of such magnitude been completed in such short time and on such a low budget.

Built on a Nullah bed,the road crisscrosses the Ring Road,tracks near the Nizamuddin Railway Station,Mathura Road and Lala Lajpat Rai Marg. “At Mathura Road,the height of the road has been kept 20 metres above the bed of the drain to maintain proper visibility of heritage structures near Nizamuddin,” another official said.

Stating that the road has been constructed right in the middle of the congested stretch without the acquisition of any land,he said the government has already decided to extend the elevated road across the Yamuna to connect UP Link Road. Once the extended project is completed,travel time from Noida to CGO Complex on Lodhi Road and AIIMS would come down to 10-15 minutes and 15-20 minutes respectively,he noted.

Work on the project,which started in December 2008,was completed just before the commencement of the Commonwealth Games in October.

PWD Minister Raj Kumar Chauhan,MP Sandeep Dikshit,MLA Tarvinder Singh Marwah,Chief Secretary Rakesh Mehta and Principal Secretary (PWD) K K Sharma were present at the inauguration ceremony. Although Union Minister Ajay Maken was invited,he did not turn up.