Now open for commuters, the tunnel as well as five underpasses are aimed at providing hassle-free and seamless connectivity between Central, Southeast and New Delhi, and will make the city’s busy routes — Bhairon Marg, Ring Road and Mathura Road — signal free. Collectively called the Pragati Maidan Integrated Transit Corridor, the project cost Rs 923 crore.
The tunnel will connect Ring Road with India Gate via Purana Qila Road passing through Pragati Maidan and provide direct access to the Pragati Maidan Trade Centre. It will decongest traffic movement at ITO junction, India Gate and the Supreme Court and is expected to help more than 1.5 lakh vehicles on a daily basis.
PM Modi inaugurated the tunnel and five underpasses on Sunday. Abhinav Saha
Out of the six underpasses, four are on Mathura road, one on Ring Road and one is under construction at the intersection of Ring Road and Bhairon Marg. The four underpasses on Mathura Road will serve as u-turns and make the entire busy stretch signal free. With this, travelling to and from Ashram and Nizamuddin will also become easy.Best of Express Premium
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Officials said the sixth underpass passes beneath a railway line and construction can only take place when trains are not running. Sources said it will take at least six more months to be completed. Once done, Bhairon Marg will also become signal free, said officials.
The corridor is funded entirely by the central government. Speaking at the opening ceremony, Modi said the Centre’s main aim behind developing the infrastructure was to provide ease of living to residents of Delhi and the NCR. He also said the Pragati Maidan tunnel and the six underpasses will help save 55 lakh litres of petrol, as per an estimate.
PM Modi inaugurated the tunnel and five underpasses on Sunday. Abhinav Saha
“I want to congratulate all the people of Delhi, Ghaziabad, Noida, and others from across the country who travel to Delhi. Today, Delhi has got a beautiful gift of modern infrastructure from the central government… Constructing such a marvellous tunnel in such a short period despite facing several hiccups like Covid-induced lockdown and labour crunch is not an easy thing. The tunnel passes beneath seven railway tracks and the stretch around Pragati Maidan sees heavy traffic but despite all of that, the engineers completed the project on time,” he said.
Union Minister of Commerce and Industry Piyush Goyal, who also attended the inaugural event, hit out at the Delhi government saying that it had refused to pay its 20% share in funds for the construction.
He said initially, the project was to be executed jointly by the Centre and the Arvind Kejriwal government where the Delhi government had to pay 20% and the Centre had to bear 80% cost. “ITPO (India Trade Promotion Organisation) officials were repeatedly writing and communicating with the state (for payment of their share of funds). But the state government (Delhi government) completely ignored saying we will not give money (for the project),” Goyal said.
“When the state government did not show any concern towards the project, the PM said that the central government will bear the entire cost of the project. So I give the credit of completing the project on time to the prime minister who keeps on thinking about easing the lives of the people,” he said. (with PTI inputs)
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