PWD starts mending 4 wide gaps on Akshardham flyover

NEW DELHI: After the Lajpat Nagar flyover, the public works department (

PWD

) has partially shut the

Akshardham flyover

that has developed wide gaps at four locations.

PWD started repair and rehabilitation work on an urgent basis on Sunday after the gaps were identified during a survey. The traffic police has given it two weeks to complete the work.

The work,

PWD officials

said, will be done in a phased manner to ensure minimum inconvenience to the public. In the first phase, the agency is repairing one portion of the carriageway towards Delhi. “Three expansion joints are being repaired on this part of the carriageway. It will be completed in the next few days. After this, we will work on the other half. The repair of this carriageway will be over in the next one week,” said an official.

Unlike Lajpat Nagar, where wide gaps were reported on the entire flyover, the problem at

Akshardham

is not that serious. “There are four expansion joints that have to be repaired,” said an official.

PWD will soon float tenders to get a detailed survey done on all its flyovers, especially those which were constructed in the 90s and early 2000. Traffic police officers said PWD had been asked to identify the flyovers requiring immediate repair so that traffic circulation plans could be chalked out accordingly.

Traffic officials said PWD had been requested to ensure that only a lane of each carriageway was closed for repair at a time while traffic should be allowed to move along the other. “Since

National Highways Authority of India

is already working in the area, we have not permitted PWD to completely stop the movement of traffic on any of the carriageways,” said a traffic police officer.

With the Lajpat Nagar flyover already being partially shut, cops expect traffic snarls along the Akshardham flyover as well. Large numbers of vehicles have already been using NH-24 while coming from Noida and east Delhi to central Delhi in order to avoid snarls at Lajpat Nagar crossing.