NHAI to build 9 km flyway on Dwarka Expressway

Gurgaon: The longest flyover in NCR will come up on the Dwarka expressway, a 9km stretch from the Delhi-Haryana border to the Basai railway overbridge in Gurgaon.

The National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) this week invited tenders to build this elevated, 8-lane corridor, which will come up over the 6-lane main expressway that is still under construction. The flyover is part of an upgrade plan that the NHAI is rolling out across the entire 28km span of the road. Around 80% of the road will either comprise flyovers or underpasses. "Out of the 28km stretch, around 23 km would be access-controlled expressway," said Udeep Singhal, NHAI project director for Dwarka expressway. He said the existing surface road would primarily be used as a service lane and for local transport.

Envisioned as the fourth link between Delhi and Gurgaon — after MG Road, NH8 and the old Delhi-Gurgaon road —Dwarka expressway originates at Shiv Murti in Delhi and ends at Kherki Daula in Gurgaon, near the toll plaza on NH8. But the road is running years behind schedule, though thousands of new apartments have been built there and sold. Homebuyers have not been able to move into the flats because the road is incomplete.

But Dwarka expressway is expected to witness heavy traffic when it opens, more so because Gurgaon's new sectors have been built on either side of it, and the flyovers and underpasses are necessary to avoid gridlocks like the ones that NH8 currently witnesses. The exercise to build flyovers and underpasses and turn the road into an access-controlled ones will be carried out in four phases, according to the NHAI.

Phase 1 (6.5km) from Shiv Murti to Bharthal Chowk and Phase 2 (3.4km) from Bharthal Chowk to the Delhi-Haryana border are in Delhi. Phase 3 (10.2km) from the Delhi-Haryana border to Basai railway overbridge and Phase 4 (7.9km) from Basai railway overbridge to Kherki Daula are in Gurgaon. The tender given out this week, on September 19, is for Phase 3.

Work on remaining three phases will start later. In Phase 1, NHAI is in talks with the Airports Authority of India, land acquisition in Phase 2 is at an advanced stage and Phase 4 has still to overcome some litigation.

Dwarka expressway was originally planned as six-lane expressway between Delhi and Gurgaon and it was expected to be completed before the Commonwealth Games in 2010 but was derailed by numerous lawsuits. In March 2016, the Haryana government requested the Centre to declare the road a national highway. NHAI took charge after that.

People who had invested in the area are still keeping their fingers crossed. "We welcome the NHAI move. But NHAI has invited tenders for only one of four phases and we hope authorities will clear the obstacles coming in the way of the project," said Sudesh Sharma, who has invested in a residential property in Sector 103.