Barapullah Ph-IV scrapped, PWD looks for other ways to connect south Delhi with IGI

NEW DELHI: The much-awaited fourth

phase

of

Barapullah

project — which was to connect south Delhi with Indira Gandhi International Airport — has been scrapped, with Public Works Department now suggesting two alternatives.


A nearly 10km-long contiguous flyover on Ring Road is among the proposals put forward by

PWD

to decongest one of the most used stretches of the city. According to senior government officials, the proposals are a part of the contingency

plan

put in place to handle the additional load of vehicles on Ring Road in view of eight General Pool Residential Accommodation (GPRA) colonies planned along the way.

One of the plans involves creating an elevated road linking six flyovers between Moti Bagh and Lajpat Nagar on an approximately 10km-long stretch on Ring Road. The other proposal is to build an elevated corridor from INA to Mahipalpur through Africa Avenue Road.

Barapullah Phase-IV was to be 7 kilometres long, of which 4.5km would have run along railway tracks. It was to be connected with Barapullah Phase-II elevated corridor at INA and would have covered Safdarjung Airport, Sarojini Nagar, Chanakyapuri and Dhaula Kuan before finally dropping down in front of Army Hospital at Delhi Cantonment.

The latest development leaves the Barapullah project with three phases — phases I and II are already operational and phase III is expected to be completed by 2020-end. Sources said the new proposals had been sent to higher authorities for approval. At least one of the projects is likely to be approved by October-end.

Under the GPRA project, eight colonies on Ring Road — East Kidwai Nagar, Sarojini Nagar, Netaji Nagar, Nauroji Nagar, Kasturba Nagar, Thyagaraja Nagar, Srinivaspuri and Mohammadpur — are being redeveloped.

A PWD official said that the corridor from near INA in south Delhi to the airport via Africa Avenue and Mahipalpur bypass could serve as a bypass for Jaipur, Gurgaon and the airport-bound traffic from east Delhi. The approximate budget for Barapullah Phase-IV was Rs 300 crore and the project would have taken two years to complete. It was aimed at cutting the peak travel time from east Delhi to the airport to 40 minutes from the current 90 minutes.

A two-wing bridge between Sarai Kale Khan and Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium is currently operational. The link between INA market and JLN stadium also started last year. Barapullah is one of Delhi’s major road infrastructure projects, with its first phase coming up during the 2010 Commonwealth Games when the link from Sarai Kale Khan to Nehru Stadium was opened.

As part of the second phase extension, three loops were opened in January 2018. These had come as a boon for travellers from Maharani Bagh, Siddhartha Enclave, New Friends Colony and Sarita Vihar.


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