This will allow seamless movement of vehicles from Dwarka towards Gurugram without going to Mahipalpur, said highway officials. NHAI officials further said that the tunnel will be opened for a few hours daily for vehicles to study the movement of traffic.
The National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) is set to begin traffic trials of two connected tunnels from the Dwarka Expressway towards the Delhi-Jaipur Expressway from next week – a move that will bring relief to thousands of commuters travelling on the Delhi-Gurgaon Expressway, particularly those travelling from Dwarka to Gurugram.
This will allow seamless movement of vehicles from Dwarka towards Gurugram without going to Mahipalpur, said highway officials. NHAI officials added that the tunnel will be opened for a few hours daily for vehicles to study the movement of traffic.
A senior official, aware of the matter, said that they expect the traffic trials on the entire network to be completed by the end of this month, and it could be inaugurated for movement of traffic by the middle of June.
The 5.1km-long tunnel which connects the Dwarka Expressway to the IGI Airport has two components, one is the 3.6km-long main tunnel, which has eight lanes, while the other one is 1.5km in length (two lanes), which will take traffic from Dwarka expressway to the Delhi-Jaipur highway towards Gurugram.
The tunnel is part of package four of the 29km-long Dwarka expressway, which connects Mahipalpur with Kherki Daula in Gurugram. The 34-meter-wide expressway, built at a cost of ₹9,000 crore, is constructed on a single pillar, covering 18.9km in Haryana and 10.1km in the national Capital.
A senior NHAI official, asking to remain anonymous, said that work on the tunnels has been completed and from next week, the traffic trial will start allowing vehicles to move from Dwarka to Gurugram. “The trial is being carried out to understand the vehicular movement, traffic density and also if there is any need to make changes on the ground. The trial will be carried out for a few days to study traffic patterns and take any measures if required,” the official said.
They added that work on the 3.6km long tunnel with eight lanes has been completed as all civil, electrical and mechanical work have been done. “Work on the tunnel which will connect the main tunnel with IGI airport is still underway and it will be completed in the next seven to 10 days. While we complete this work, the trial on the Dwarka to Gurugram section will be carried out,” said a senior official of the highway project contractor.
Once the trial on this section is over, the officials said they will start trials for movement of traffic from Gurugram to Dwarka expressway and thereafter from Dwarka expressway to IGI Airport and from IGI airport to Dwarka expressway, through the main tunnel and other connecting tunnels. “The opening of traffic on package four will considerably reduce congestion at Mahipalpur as thousands of vehicles from Dwarka travel to Gurugram via Mahipalpur. Once the entire tunnel system is opened, the traffic congestion will ease considerably between Mahipalpur and Sirhaul toll plaza in Gurugram,” said the NHAI official.
The tunnel system being constructed by NHAI comprises of a stack interchange, which will have two levels of underpasses below the existing Delhi-Gurgaon expressway and this is being combined with an elevated corridor at the same location, the NHAI had said earlier.
Source : HT
