L-G’s office directs PWD to look at alternative to new RTR flyover plan

It said this was to ensure that a holistic view was taken while considering options to decongest the area.

“The L-G’s office has not shot down any proposal to decongest the area around RTR flyover. Instead of constructing another three-lane flyover parallel to the existing flyover,some residents of Vasant Vihar had come up with an alternative solution by hiring services of in-house experts. We have asked PWD and UTTIPEC to look into it. The plan is to strengthen the existing pillars of the RTR flyover,attach cantilevers and extend the flyover by one-and-a-half lanes on either side. We just want to ensure that a holistic view is taken on this issue,’’ officer on special duty to L-G,Ranjan Mukherjee,said.

The UTTIPEC has been told to get a structural stability study conducted for the proposed solution.

Meanwhile,Vasant Vihar Residents’ Welfare Association has written to Delhi’s PWD Minister Raj Kumar Chauhan on Monday saying it was “distressed” to learn that the L-G had asked for an examination of an alternative to PWD’s plan to build a three-lane flyover parallel to the existing one on RTR.

“We resent the delay this intrusion will cause. As it is,a similar intervention in the past delayed the project. And now that all systems have been cleared,the L-G has…succumbed to pressure that will cause immense harm to all who use Outer Ring Road,” president of the RWA,Dr Gautam Vohra,said in the letter.

The letter also gives an account of the problems faced by residents. Citing the high volume of traffic on Paschimi Marg,the RWA has requested that a direct right-turn from Outer Ring Road to Vasant Vihar be put in place for traffic coming from the airport side.

The RTR flyover,constructed as part of the Commonwealth Games projects,was originally planned as a three-lane,one-way facility from the airport to IIT.

After huge bottlenecks were reported on the stretch,the traffic on the flyover was reversed — from IIT to the airport. More snarls resulted in front of Army Research and Referral Hospital and it was decided that the carriageway be made two-way. The result was that the flyover ended up with only one-and-a-half lanes available to each side.

Study

Rites was hired by the PWD to study a 7-km corridor of Outer Ring Road starting from IIT to NH-8 junction

The objective was to prepare an integrated plan to meet long-term mobility requirements of the corridor

According to the study,based on conservative estimates of traffic growth, an 8-lane flyover would be required by 2031 to cater to traffic.

The solutions would,therefore,need to look at reducing/ diverting the traffic on Rao Tula Ram (RTR)/ Outer Ring Road (ORR)

Solutions

Proposed circulation plan,one-way movement on RTR Marg and Benito Juarez

Improvements on grade-level

Six-laning of Rao Tula Ram flyover or extending it

Better utilisation of roads like Nelson Mandela Marg

PWD has also proposed a new link for bypassing Mehrauli-Mahipalpur Road to NH-8. This will serve as an alternative route between Airport and Delhi