The Hindu : New Delhi News : Travelling on NH-24 to become smoother, faster

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Thursday, Feb 21, 2008
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Travelling on NH-24 to become smoother, faster

Gaurav Vivek Bhatnagar

The project had run into delays on various counts
Work on the Ghazipur flyover due to start in March

NEW DELHI: For lakhs of motorists using National Highway-24 for travelling to and from East Delhi and beyond, the ride is all set to get smoother and faster with the Delhi Government’s Public Works Department now working towards completing the road widening work from Pandav Nagar to Ghazipur Drain by July-end.

Also, with work on the Ghazipur flyover due to start in March, people can now well hope for a signal free-journey on the road right up to the Uttar Pradesh border in a couple of years.

Though works on the road widening project were awarded in August 2006 and were expected to be completed by November 2007, the project had run into delays on various counts from the world go. “First we were unable to get the slums out of the way and because of that, work could not start for eight months,” explained PWD Engineer-in-Chief R. Subramanian.

Hike in prices

And after the tenements were removed in April-May 2007, another problem cropped up. “The price of bitumen, with which the road is laid, and steel, which is an important material for construction of new bridges, went up sharply and we had to get a revised sanction from the Union Ministry of Surface Transport. That having been received, work would gather pace now,” the official said.

Since extreme cold conditions are not ideal for laying of roads, he said, now that the weather had cleared laying of roads would pick up speed. “Also we would be throwing open new sections to the public as soon as they are completed to ease congestion on the road. A ramp from near Mother Dairy at Pandav Nagar would be opened soon to allow easy movement of east bound traffic.”

At Pandav Nagar, the eight-lane highway would move slightly south as construction of the new bridge has been taken on only one side of the existing highway.

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