PGI-Sarangpur traffic chaos: Chandigarh admn offers double-decker fix for Metro-flyover clash
The proposal was discussed in a review meeting on Tuesday, chaired by UT chief engineer CB Ojha, where officials from Rail India Technical and Economic Services (RITES) were urged to consider the dual-layer road design for the area, which has been identified by the Road Safety Committee as a major bottleneck.
In its latest report, shared in April, the Road Safety Committee stated that traffic jams, lack of footpaths (forcing pedestrians onto roads), roadside parking, encroachments by shops, waterlogging during monsoon, U-turns at junctions and autos halting mid-road to pick up passengers had collectively turned the stretch into a critical chokepoint.
According to initial plans prepared by the UT engineering department, the flyover was to be constructed at a cost of around ₹90 crore, running 1.75 km in length, with a 1.3-km elevated stretch.
At the Tuesday meeting, Ojha also directed RITES to incorporate observations from the scenario report on the Metro project, which was submitted last month. RITES has now been asked to expedite its work and submit the final report.
In its scenario report, RITES stated that the Metro project was financially viable for the tricity, though it may take at least a decade for the system to achieve profitability.
The report drew comparisons with Metro systems in Ahmedabad, Kochi, Jaipur and Noida, noting that such projects were typically evaluated over a 30-year operational horizon.
Using the Ahmedabad Metro as a case study, the report pointed out that recovering capital investment may take at least five years, and highlighted unforeseen disruptions like the Covid-19 pandemic that delayed business recovery after its launch in 2019.
During a committee meeting held in March, former Haryana transport additional chief secretary Ashok Khemka had asked RITES to re-examine its ridership estimate of 11.3 lakh passengers annually. The revised report was subsequently submitted in May.
The eight-member expert committee, constituted in November last year, was entrusted with evaluating the financial viability of the Tricity Metro project.
The final report is expected to be submitted by mid-July to UT administrator Gulab Chand Kataria, who will present it before the Unified Metropolitan Transport Authority (UMTA), the body responsible for coordinating urban mobility initiatives across the tricity region.
Last year in November, Union minister for power, housing and urban affairs Manohar Lal Khattar had expressed concerns over the project's ridership levels.
He had warned that inadequate ridership could affect the long-term viability of the Metro system in Chandigarh. 'Ridership in Chandigarh does not appear to meet the threshold required for a viable Metro system,' he noted, urging the consideration of alternative transport solutions such as pod taxis.
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