New Delhi [India], February 3 (ANI): Deputy Chief Minister and PWD Minister Manish Sisodia on Thursday took stock of ongoing construction of the Ashram flyover, and directed for timely completion of the project.

The extension work of the Ashram flyover that is ongoing will be completed by the end of this month, and it will allow motorists to bypass 3 traffic lights between Ashram Chowk and DND, making vehicular movement smoother.

"It was a difficult task to build a flyover in the middle of the road given that there was heavy traffic flow, and no permission was provided to stop it. But our engineers overcame all such difficulties to make the construction possible. The flyover extension will be opened for public use after the completion of its construction by this month," said Sisodia.

The engineers informed the PWD minister during the inspection that the vehicular load of the road on which the construction is underway is excessively high, due to which they have to constantly overcome several challenges to keep the work going.

The engineers said that all the pillars of the flyover have been erected, along with which, 146 girders have been placed on them. Furthermore, the work of connecting the new and old flyover is also nearing completion.

As per the engineer's report, more than 95 per cent of the construction work has been finished and the project is currently at the carpeting stage - also being completed on a war footing. Once this is done, the flyover shall finally be ready to be opened out for public use.

Along with the flyover, the road below the flyover shall be beautified and re-carpeted by the PWD and the footpath running along the said road shall also be repaired.

The construction work of the flyover extension started in June 2020 after the project was approved by the Cabinet.

However, the work was stalled for a long time due to the closure of construction activities during the COVID-19 lockdown and later due to an increase in pollution levels.

The permission to start construction work from the traffic police also took almost a year, due to which, the pace of construction work was reduced further.

At present, vehicles coming and going from Noida and Ghaziabad to South Delhi have to grapple with jams while travelling from the DND loop to the Ashram intersection. But after the completion of the flyover extension, people will be freed from this jam.

At present, vehicles have to take a long route to cross the road from Kilokari, but soon, 150 meters away from Kilokari to Ring Road, drivers will be able to cross the road by taking a U-turn to reach Maharani Bagh or South Delhi.

Similarly, vehicles going from Maharani Bagh to Sarai Kale Khan, Noida, ITO and Ghaziabad will not have to take long detours. A subway for pedestrians is also being constructed here.

The six-lane flyover is being constructed at a cost of Rs 128.25 crore. It will have three-lane ramps from South Delhi to Sarai Kale Khan, and from ITO and Sarai Kale Khan to South Delhi. It will have subway for pedestrians at the Maharani Bagh traffic light. The total length of the flyover including the ramp is 1425 meters. (ANI)