The Delhi Public Works Department has agreed to commission a study for an elevated road between the Kalkaji Flyover and Nehru Place Flyover, targeting a persistent bottleneck on Delhi’s Outer Ring Road near Bhairav Temple. The proposed corridor is intended to separate through traffic from local movements and ease congestion affecting Kalkaji, Nehru Place and nearby South Delhi neighbourhoods.
The bottleneck forms shortly after traffic coming from the Modi Mill side crosses the Kalkaji Flyover. Vehicles from Maa Anandmayi Marg, Modi Mill and the Nehru Place U-turn converge in the same stretch near Bhairav Temple. According to the report, a four-lane road narrows to one usable lane because vehicles belonging to visitors to the temple are parked along the roadside.
Three petrol pumps located immediately beyond the temple further constrain movement. Queues of vehicles waiting for compressed natural gas at the pumps extend for nearly 300 metres, keeping the road narrowed and slowing traffic through the area. The combination of parked vehicles, fuel-station access and merging traffic has created a recurring congestion point rather than an occasional disruption.
The PWD’s proposed study would examine an elevated connection from the Kalkaji Flyover to the Nehru Place Flyover. The department has agreed in principle to the study, but the supplied report does not provide a project cost, construction schedule, approved design or estimated completion date. The immediate next step is therefore feasibility and planning work rather than construction of the elevated road.
Other flyover works are already under way in the same traffic system. Work is continuing to add a second lane to the single-lane Kalkaji Flyover and extend it towards Modi Mill. Work on a second lane for the Savitri Cinema Flyover has also begun. The PWD has said that these projects, together with the proposed elevated connection, would help reduce congestion for residents and commuters travelling through Chittaranjan Park, Greater Kailash, Chirag Delhi, Kalkaji and Nehru Place.
The proposal has also followed questions from the South Range Traffic Department about the feasibility of the two ongoing projects. In a letter to the PWD dated August 19, the traffic department suggested that the Modi Mill Flyover should not stop at a connection with the Kalkaji Flyover. Instead, it recommended extending the route towards Nehru Place and Savitri Cinema.
The traffic department’s concern relates to the physical constraints around the Outer Ring Road. The stretch between the Nehru Place and Savitri Cinema flyovers is bordered by CR Park on one side and the Pamposh and GK-I colonies on the other. These surrounding residential areas limit the scope for widening the road at ground level, according to the report, making grade-separated infrastructure one option under consideration for maintaining traffic flow.
Deputy Commissioner of Police, Traffic, South Range, Sandeep Gupta said the PWD had so far agreed only to an elevated road between Kalkaji and Nehru Place. The final alignment, feasibility, design, cost and implementation timeline will depend on the study and subsequent decisions by the department.
