Gadkari to inaugurate flyover at Delhi's Dhaula Kuan junction on Saturday

Union Minister Nitin Gadkari will Saturday inaugurate a flyover at the national capital's Dhaula Kuan junction, considered as the first step towards development of a signal free corridor to the Indira Gandhi International Airport, the government said Friday.

The flyover has been built in a record time of 136 days and will reduce the waiting time at Dhaula Kuan traffic signal.

Transport Minister Gadkari will inaugurate the four-lane flyover at Dhaula Kuan junction near Dhaula Kuan Metro Station on NH-8 on Saturday, Ministry of Road Transport and Highways said in a statement.

"The flyover, which will reduce the waiting time at the traffic light by 30 minutes at peak hours, is the first step towards development of an eight-lane, signal free Dhaula Kuan-Airport corridor," it said.

The National Highway-8 (New NH-48) is the prime link providing connectivity to the IGI Airport from Delhi and the National Capital Region.

"The frequent traffic jams in the corridor result in travel time of 10-30 minutes in crossing this stretch of about 3 km. NHAI has taken up the development of a signal free corridor from Dhaula Kuan interchange to airport at an estimated cost of Rs 270 crore. The work on the project commenced in March, 2018," the statement said.

The project had huge challenges in terms of traffic management of about 3 lakhs PCUs (passenger car units) per day, presence of a large number of civil and defence utilities, shifting of defence infrastructure and getting security clearances, the statement said.

Besides the flyover being inaugurated Saturday, the complete signal free Dhaula Kuan-Airport corridor consists of widening of Dhaula Kuan-IGI corridor from six-lanes to eight-lanes, a three-lane flyover from Janakpuri road to merge with NH-8, three-lane vehicular underpass at Parade Road junction, 3 PUPs, 2 VUPs and an FOB for pedestrians.

This project would be in addition to the nine other projects being implemented for decongesting NCR Delhi.