Gurgaon-Dwarka Tunnel Road Set To Ease Commute
Commuting in the national capital will soon get easier with the new road infrastructure planned in different parts of the city. One of them is the road tunnel that would connect Dwarka and Gurgaon with the international airport. The tunnel is being mulled to be the longest in the National Capital Region (NCR) . Here are few other features that make this development all the more important.
Gurgaon-Dwarka Tunnel
The four-km long stretch will link Gurgaon and Dwarka directly to the Terminal 3 of the Indira Gandhi International Airport. The tunnel would run parallel to the existing underground Delhi Airport Metro line connecting Dwarka Sector 21 to the airport. Recently, the authority invited bids for appointing a consultant for this project, proposing to complete the same in the next three years. According to the timeline issued, commuters would be able to use the tunnel by 2020. Passengers travelling to the international airport from Gurgaon will be able to take the Dwarka Expressway and then the tunnel road to reach the airport, bypassing the entire National Highway-8.
At present, people travelling from Gurgaon to the airport have to travel through the highly congested NH-8, also known as the Delhi-Gurugram Expressway.
For residents of Dwarka, the route would open from Sector 21. The technical consultant to be hired for the project has been asked to advise on the feasibility of the tunnel and other pre-construction activities such as the possibility of having a junction of the tunnel with Dwarka Expressway.
Lodhi Road Tunnel plan revived
The Dwarka-Gurgaon Tunnel is not the only underground road that would transform the travelling experience in the national capital. The Lodhi Road Tunnel plan, which was first proposed in 2006, was shelved as the Archaeological Survey of India denied permission. This plan has now been revived. The Delhi government's Public Works Department is once again game for constructing a 2.5km-long tunnel between the NH-24 and the Lodhi Road to handle the projected increase in traffic volume after completion of the NH-24 widening work. However, there are many protected monuments on the proposed alignment and therefore the proposal has been sent to the National Monuments Authority (NMA) for approval.
According to the plan, the tunnel will start from the NH-24, near the T-point and emerge at the Lodhi Road before the Archbishop Makarios Marg traffic intersection. It will have ramps on either side of the Ring Road for vehicles to enter and exit in both directions from the tunnel.
According to PWD officials, the new alignment has been carefully worked out so that the 100-mt restriction is maintained which says no construction activity is allowed within 100 mt from protected monuments.
Impact on commuters
At present, there are just two routes — Ashram or Bhairon Marg, available for central Delhi-bound traffic from the NH-24, which remains congested during peak hours. According to the report submitted by the National Highway Authority of India (NHAI) , the traffic volume is going to double once the work on Delhi-Meerut Expressway is complete. There are chances that the NH-24 traffic might get stuck on the Ring Road and the Bhairon Marg if an alternative route is not planned.