Traffic diversions on Ring Road to construct West Delhi flyover

Traffic chaos on the Ring Road due to the under construction Punjabi Bagh Club Flyover on March 13.

The Delhi traffic police on Monday barricaded a section of the Ring Road in west Delhi for two months to facilitate the construction of a flyover in Punjabi Bagh, which will likely cause traffic jams near Bharat Darshan Park during the affected period.

The traffic police issued an advisory on Monday warning about restrictions and diversions and asked commuters to use alternate routes for the next two months. A senior officer said that the construction will impact traffic from west Delhi and outer Delhi and may set back commutes by 30 minutes to two hours.

The flyover under construction is the second section of the Moti Nagar flyover on the Punjabi Bagh Club Road, and it is likely to be completed by July. Its previous December 2023 and February 2024 deadlines have been missed because utilities such as high-tension power cables and a water pipeline in the area have not been shifted by the respective agencies, permission has not been granted for felling trees, and a period when Graded Action Response Plan (Grap) restrictions were imposed, delaying the construction work. The first section of the flyover was inaugurated by chief minister Arvind Kejriwal on March 13. Both sections of the flyover are part of the elevated west Delhi corridor between Punjabi Bagh Flyover and Raja Garden which was launched in September 2022. Aside from the flyover, a subway will also be built near Punjabi Bagh by July.

The traffic advisory said jersey barriers have been placed on the Ring Road. “A stretch of 300 metres on the Bharat Darshan Park intersection has been covered with jersey barricades and will be closed. The barricading will affect traffic coming from Karampura Flyover. Traffic will remain heavy on Shiv Das Puri Marg, Bharat Darshan Park, and road number 41 near Gurudwara Punjabi Bagh. We have been training staff for at least a month. Marshals have also been deployed,” said a senior police officer.

The barriers will prevent traffic coming from Moti Nagar via the Karampura Flyover from making a right turn on the Shiv Das Puri Marg towards the Punjabi Bagh roundabout. Instead, these commuters are advised to take the Vashishth Kumar Gulia Marg, make a right turn to road number 41, then another right turn towards the traffic training park, and then a left turn for the Punjab Bagh roundabout. However, commuters coming from the Raja Garden side will be able to access the newly constructed Moti Nagar flyover.

“Traffic will remain heavy on Shiv Das Puri Marg till the Punjabi Bagh roundabout for at least a month,” the advisory said.

“Commuters going from Raja Garden to the Punjabi Bagh roundabout are advised to take the newly constructed flyover. Commuters going from Dhaula Kuan to Zakhira are advised to use alternate routes and make a right turn from the Raja Garden Chowk towards Shivaji Marg and then towards Zakhira,” it added.

A senior public works department (PWD) official said that the Club Road flyover section has witnessed delays due to the non-shifting of utilities. “The power discom is likely to complete the work on shifting overhead high-tension power lines this month. We will also need the forest department’s permission for felling 39 trees. A water pipeline of the Delhi Jal Board that is passing through the Club Road flyover also needs to be relocated. So the completion deadline has been pushed back to July,” the official said on condition of anonymity.

PWD had previously said that it had lost momentum in civil work when the construction ban was imposed under the stage-4 of Grap due to high pollution levels in Delhi and the National Capital Region in November of last year.

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