Title - Underpass to ease RTR mess

New Delhi: The public works department (PWD), in consultation with Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC), plans to build an underpass for traffic from Benito Juarez Marg to turn right on to Ring Road. This will cut the Rao Tula Ram Marg (RTR) traffic load, diverting the flow to the underutilized Benito Juarez Marg, PWD officials said.    “DMRC is already building an underground station on Ring Road in the same area as we propose the underpass. We are working on the underpass with DMRC engineers,” a senior PWD official said.    PWD officials had earlier sent a proposed underpass plan – a three-lane road –to DMRC. By then, DMRC had already started work on the underground Metro station foundation. So, the underpass plan had to be modified.    The DMRC has now suggested another alignment where the underpass will be shifted to the right. It will now run between the corner foundation pillar and the underconstruction metro station’s viaduct pillar. This will mean that the underpass width may have to be squeezed to two-anda-half lanes. “Our concern is to ensure that work on the underpass is done before Metro completes its work. This would ensure minimum inconvenience to commuters during construction,” the official added.
    The underpass, PWD officials said, would ease congestion on RTR Marg. The traffic from NH-8 towards Ring Road has to go all the way down RTR Marg and there’s no right turn at BJ Marg. “The underpass will divide the traffic between RTR and BJ Marg, easing the RTR load. Our studies show BJ Marg is underutilized,” the official added.
    The underpass plan has to get approval of the governing body of DDA’s planning wing UTTIPEC. This plan is not part of the short-term measures engineering consultant RITES had earlier suggested. This organization had been appointed to suggest measures to straighten out the area’s traffic mess. The snarls that are a regular feature in the locality, have been blamed on the faulty construction of a Rs 60crore flyover on RTR Marg. Constructed during the Commonwealth Games, it was planned originally as a two-way flyover. But it was subsequently built as a three-lane, one-way stretch between the airport and IIT.