New Delhi
Residents of localities adjoining the Outer Ring Road (ORR) in south Delhi and commuters frequenting this stretch complained of incessant traffic and excessive dust pollution due to ongoing road repairs, and raised concerns over a lack of mitigatory measures taken to control the spread of dust. The problem is especially exacerbated at Nehru Place, Chirag Delhi and Savitri flyover, they said.
A spot check by HT on Thursday morning found the stretch from Panchsheel Park to Chirag Delhi was enveloped in dust, as vehicles moved at a snail’s pace and pedestrians covered their faces to evade dust.
“This road already has very high traffic and now, it takes over half hour to cross the small stretch near Chirag Delhi. You cannot roll down the window here at all as it is dusty throughout the day,” said Sunny Jaiswal, a commuter who frequents Chirag Delhi.
Another commuter, Ankita Agarwal, who was trying to cross the stretch on foot, said the problem has worsened over the past 10 days.
“The road condition here has already been bad in the last couple of years, but the problem has only increased now. The repairs that have been done in the past are of such poor quality that the entire road is bumpy and no levelling has been done. Now, it feels dusty through the day in the entire area,” said Agarwal, who works at a showroom located along the road.
The Public Works Department (PWD) has identified around 7,000 potholes and about 200,000 square metres of patchwork repairs that need to be undertaken across the city, and is aiming to complete all work by April 30, officials said. Officials of the department refuted claims that dust-control measures were not being taken.
“We are trying to finish work at the earliest so that we don’t have to halt midway due to monsoon. All necessary precautions are being taken, and we try to ensure that most of the work is done late night,” a PWD official said.
Officials said patchwork repair is currently underway at parts of Ring Road, Outer Ring Road, Vikas Marg, Noida Link Road, Rani Jhansi Road, Boulevard Road, Mehrauli-Mahipalpur Road, Ravi Das Marg, Guru Govalkar Marg and Kanjhawala Road. A key stretch around CDR Chowk has also witnessed congestion in the past couple of days.
Among the areas affected is GK-II, where the problem persists even in the night, according to residents.
“No guidelines are followed, and water sprinkling doesn’t seem to be happening. There is also no monitoring. The entire road Panchsheel Park onwards is scraped, and a dust bowl can be seen throughout the day and the night,” said Chetan Sharma, chairman of the Federation of GK-II Complex RWAs.
Residents said the problem has recently reduced near Nehru Place, where repair work along the carriageway and service lane concluded recently. However, the stretch is still congested and poorly planned.
“There was repair work being done near Nehru Place, which just ended about 10 days ago and congestion has reduced. However, their planning needs to be better. We have been complaining that the stretch needs to be widened or needs an elevated section to improve carrying capacity, but they take no such engineering measures apart from basic repair and recarpeting,” said Inder Kohli, chief coordinator of Nehru Place Market Association.
The PWD also recently finished repair work on the stretch around Madhuban Chowk in Pitampura to the railway overbridge near the Peeragarhi intersection, along with areas around Mayapuri.
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