Good news for Ahmedabad commuters

Work on a four-lane, 400-metre underpass near the old Gujarat High Court that will connect C.G. Road with Ashram Road, beneath the busy Income Tax railway crossing, is expected to begin on October 1. For a year and half, the railway crossing will remain shut with road traffic diverted via Navrangpura and Usmanpura crossings.

Nearly 14 trains pass through the railway crossing every day bringing the busy city traffic to a grinding halt for close to four and a half hours. Every time the vehicles need at least 10 minutes to clear, leading to delays and traffic snags sometimes right up to Ashram Road. The underpass which is expected to take a year and half to complete, is part of an ambitious Rs.10 crore project taken up by the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation to construct three underpasses to ease the mounting traffic woes of the city. Work, scheduled to begin on September 15, had to be postponed after the local roadside shopkeepers protested. "The sooner they let us start work, the sooner it will finish," says Deputy Municipal Commissioner G M Khalsa, who is hopeful that work will start on October 1.

Last year the AMC took the decision to develop three underpasses in the city. While work on the Akbar Nagar underbridge which started in November 1998 is 70 per cent done and is expected to be complete by the end of the year, construction of the third underpass planned at Usmanpura Crossing - connecting Ashram Road to Sardar Patel Colony - will start once the Income Tax underpass is complete, says Khalsa. Technically, the underpass was pushed in three boxes under the railway line while the overhead traffic was kept intact. "The main work is done and entrances should be complete by year end," said Khalsa.

According to Khalsa, the underpass at the Income Tax railway crossing will be about 200 metres towards the Income Tax crossing and about 180 metres towards the Stadium. It will have a width of 15 metres with four lanes.

Two six-metre wide bridges will be constructed on either side of the railway track to take on the road traffic presently playing there.

Compiled from local news media