Delhi: Defence Colony flyover perilously poised

NEW DELHI: Aged 40 plus, the Defence Colony flyover is in urgent need of repair. However, it has allegedly taken Railways close to two years to respond to letters by the public works department, asking it to do its share of the work. Now, the only hurdle is permission from traffic police.
When repair does start, expect major traffic congestion as part of the flyover will be closed for work.
"The life of a flyover is usually 20 years but often one can last much longer. This is the case with the Defence Colony flyover. After a fire broke out under it in 2011, we have been increasingly feeling the need to initiate maintenance. Since the flyover goes above a railway line, we had to involve the Railways. PWD started writing to Northern Railway close to two years back and did not get a single response. However, Railways finally responded earlier this month. Now traffic police urgently needs to step in and grant us permission to begin work," said a government official.
Meanwhile, Railways has countered the PWD accusation, saying they had been trying to get in touch with it but the infrastructure agency was not responding.
A spokesperson said, "A letter was written to the PWD project manager on June 18, 2015, saying that the executive engineer concerned was contacted many times by Railways but that there was no response from him. A meeting was subsequently held with PWD on July 16. A joint inspection was held on August 10 in which a detailed plan was decided upon. The repair work will be undertaken by PWD and Railways will ensure train movement is stopped in that particular section for the required time period."

A government official said that the bearings and expansion joints of the flyover must be changed for which the deck will have to be raised. "We started work on strengthening the concrete about a year ago, but traffic police has not given permission to stop traffic. Unless that happens, we cannot move ahead. If work does not start soon, we may end up seeing uneven settlement of the road surface.Joints may start opening up, too," said the official.
While PWD has prepared a list of flyovers that need to undergo maintenance work, Defence Colony has been a priority because of a fire that broke out in shops under it in May 2011. "The fire seems to have weakened the structure. PWD carried out an inspection soon after the fire and did not find anything particularly serious. However, four years down the line the impact of the fire has started showing," said an official.