Ahmedabad: The cable bridge at Rajasthan Circle in Bhat, commissioned in 2019, was inaugurated earlier this month. However, there was another element to the project that Ahmedabad Urban Development Authority (Auda) and the state roads and buildings department either forgot about or sat on for four years — an underpass under the bridge to facilitate smoother traffic flow. This project, approved in 2022, was to cost Rs 50 crore. Cut to 2026, Auda plans to take up the underpass project — from Bhat Bridge to Tapovan Circle — as part of the works to six-lane SP Ring Road. The backgrounder goes thus: As the traffic situation was worsening at Rajasthan Circle near Bhat village on the 76km ring road, the roads and building department’s Capital Project Division No. 3 in 2019 approved the cable flyover project for an estimated Rs 135.7 crore. The Auda chairman, at a July 2, 2019, board meeting, approved a resolution on sharing 50% of the cost. The same year, Auda decided to six-lane SP Ring Road. Part of this road widening project were flyovers at nine junctions and an underpass at one circle at a cost of Rs 660 crore, funded by an Asian Development Bank loan. Till this point, work on the underpass had not been initiated.With thoughts of reviving the plan and clubbing it with the cable flyover project, Auda requested Capital Division No. 3 to take up the task and requested their consultant, HCP Design Planning and Management, which was building the flyover, for a layout plan and block estimate for the underpass. The idea behind using the same consultant was uniformity in both the projects and finish them simultaneously while splitting the Rs 50 crore cost with the division. Auda thought any savings from the flyover project could be funnelled into building the underpass. On April 5, 2022, the consultants presented a detailed report with the plan.Auda also stipulated that the Capital Project Division would handle the underpass’s maintenance during monsoons and manage traffic flow on SP Ring Road until the defect liability period. However, between 2022 and 2026, work on the cable flyover bridge continued, but never took off for the underpass. An Auda official requesting anonymity said, “Auda has approved a Rs 2,200 crore project to widen the 76km SP Ring Road to six lanes. Work has been assigned to two companies. In Package 1, the tender to widen 37km of the ring road in eastern region to six lanes has been approved. In Package 2, the tender to widen 39.25km in the western part has been passed. Plans also include widening the existing 34km two-lane service road to four lanes, and the 15km three-lane service road to four lanes.”The official added, “In 2022, Auda approved the underpass, but it was never built for some reason. It will now be built at Bhat Circle as part of the ring road widening works.”
