Barapullah Rd will open on Dec 1

NEW DELHI: The elevated Barapullah Nallah Road will be opened for general traffic on December 1. The stretch, constructed to ferry athletes to Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium for the Commonwealth Games, is going to drastically cut travel time between east and south Delhi.
The road was inspected by a team of officials from Delhi government and Delhi Police on Wednesday where Public Works Department (PWD) and Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) have been asked to carry out minor modifications before traffic can be allowed on the stretch.
"Some modifications need to be made on the stretch which will be completed in the next 15 days. The elevated Barapullah Nallah Road will be operational by December 1," said Delhi chief secretary Rakesh Mehta.
The main point of concern was reportedly the point of descent from the flyover and its connectivity to the main Fourth Avenue crossing on the south Delhi side. According to officials, a low wall which now falls in the middle of the road will be demolished by MCD and a proper traffic intersection will be created at Fourth Avenue crossing.
Since this is the first point where all the traffic coming straight from east Delhi via Sarai Kale Khan will encounter conflicting vehicles in other directions, the traffic police are going to put up a signal at the main intersection to regular movement of vehicles.
Minor modifications will also have to be made to the descent road coming down from the elevated Barapullah stretch, where the kerbstones need to be aligned with the road that follows later at the Fourth Avenue crossing. The descent at one point is very steep and changes in alignment will be made to contain that.
A level railway crossing being used by residents of Kotla Mubarakpur also needs to be closed for which Delhi government has already written to General Manager (Operations) of Indian Railways. The crossing is used by residents
of the area and could pose a major hindrance to movement of traffic coming from the elevated road.
Minor changes also need to be made to an underpass and a small crossing before it. A rotary at the crossing is now reportedly on one side of the main carriageway and its alignment would need to be shifted. Heavy vehicles using the flyover and headed for Aurobindo Marg can't use an underpass that links the two since the height of the underpass needs to be increased.
Even as work on the underpass will not be undertaken immediately, bollards will be put up on the road to segregate light and heavy vehicles so that the latter are guided away from the underpass.
Officials said that the concerned agencies, on Wednesday, were asked to execute the changes at the earliest so that the road can be opened.
megha.suri@timesgroup.com