Three-tier solution for Hero Honda Chowk

GURGAON: Those who drive regularly, or occasionally, to Hero Honda Chowk would agree that Gurgaon saves its worst for the last. Named after the eponymous bike maker located nearby, this intersection is the final hurdle for traffic between the two toll plazas in the city — the first at Sirhaul on the Delhi border that is now gone and the second at Kherki Dhaula.

With its inherent design flaws and drainage problems that cause heavy waterlogging during rain, Hero Honda Chowk has always been a town planner's worst nightmare. The interface of Old Gurgaon Road and the expressway has, over the years, been mired in apathy as government agencies have prevaricated on solutions while the municipal corporation and the company that ran the expressway have bickered over who should solve the waterlogging problem.

It's only earlier this year, on January 31, that a solution finally emerged. The National Highways Authority of India and the Haryana government approved a three-level crossing at Hero Honda Chowk — an eight-lane flyover on the expressway and a four-lane underpass on Old Gurgaon Road while the existing road is exclusively used by vehicles coming from the Delhi side that want to turn into Old Gurgaon Road. There will also be slip lanes for U-turns and right turns.

The NHAI is now banking on a speedy response from the MCG to take care of the drainage system so that they it start building the flyover.

"We are all set with our plan and expect to start building the flyover soon. The only issue that now remains is that the MCG should take care of the drainage system because we cannot start digging up the site without making sure that the intersection won't get inundated", said Ashok Kumar Sharma, project director and general manager of NHAI. The flyover will start 450 metres before and after Hero Honda Chowk. "This will decongest the area and provide unobstructed traffic flow. We will be asking for tenders by the first week of March" Sharma said.

The other major issue that the underpass will resolve is that of a U-turn. At present, vehicles on the Old Gurgaon Road that want to cross the expressway and go to the other side have to either drive up to Kherki Dhaula toll plaza or an equal distance in the opposite direction to take a U-turn.

But the big question that remains how the intersection will handle the increased flow of traffic, now that the Sirhaul toll plaza is gone. The solution, said experts, does not lie in localized attention. "One has to focus on the entire area as a single unit and then work out solutions because problems along the expressway are like a toothpaste tube. If you press one end, the problem only shifts ahead," said YP Sachdeva, general manager, urban transport, at RITES.

"Problems along the expressway have existed from the time it was built. Now, even with the corrective measures, most of which are cost intensive, one can only hope to achieve certain degrees of correction. But we hope the flyover at Hero Honda Chows does help to dissipate the present issues," said Raj Vir Singh, former chief town planner of Haryana.