The old Rao Tula Ram (RTR) flyover that heads towards Vasant Vihar from Delhi airport will reopen to light vehicles, including cars and two-wheelers, from Tuesday but heavy vehicles will continue to be diverted, a senior traffic police officer said on Monday.
Commuters between the IGI Airport, Gurugram and Vasant Vihar were hit the hardest. Traffic from Delhi airport, Gurugram, and Dwarka heading to Vasant Vihar and Chirag Delhi were diverted onto the service road adjoining the RTR flyover and other alternate routes. Shuttering work and repairs to the cracked portions were completed by Friday, but the concrete is undergoing the curing process. The infrastructure agency plans to carry out a structural audit of the flyover to check for any other weak points in its structure. Traffic near Atlas Chowk also moved slowly.
The flyover was shut on October 20 after at least three cracks were detected on its main carriageway, throwing traffic into chaos. In its Friday advisory, the traffic police said congestion was reported on National Highway 48, the Dhaula Kuan stretch and roads passing through the Delhi Cantonment area. Commuters were also seen diverting to alternative routes through NH-48 towards Dhaula Kuan and other roads in the cantonment area, adding to the traffic load on both carriageways, particularly during peak hours. In Gurugram, traffic congestion was reported on a nearly six-kilometre stretch of NH-48 between Rajiv Chowk and Leisure Valley Park. The RTR flyover was opened to traffic on October 9, 2009, as part of an Outer Ring Road decongestion project by the Delhi PWD. Following the opening of the parallel new elevated RTR flyover in July 2019, the old flyover was converted into a one-way facility for traffic coming from the airport and heading towards IIT-Delhi. The significant cracks in the deck slabs surfaced within 17 years of the flyover’s construction.
In an advisory, it said traffic restrictions could continue into the beginning of this week, as the newly laid concrete needed time to dry and cure. Delhi Public Works Department (PWD) minister Parvesh Verma is likely to visit the flyover on Monday. On Friday, the Delhi Traffic Police said repair works on the stretch could take another three to four days.
“From Tuesday onwards, cars and two wheelers will be allowed but trucks will continue to be diverted,” the senior officer said, seeking anonymity. The structural consultant was also asked to conduct load testing on the flyover later in the night, the official said. “After we received the test results late on Sunday, we planned to reopen the flyover to traffic,” the official added.
A PWD official said the decision to reopen the flyover for light vehicles was taken following cube compressive strength tests on Sunday.
