Tribune Chowk flyover: Ministry seeks fresh estimates

Dushyant Singh Pundir

Chandigarh, June 12

After the directions of the Punjab and Haryana High Court, the Union Ministry of Road Transport and Highways today asked the UT Administration to submit fresh estimates for the proposed flyover at the Tribune Chowk.

At a meeting held in Delhi, officers of the ministry directed the UT team to submit fresh estimates and details of the project.

A UT official, who attended the meeting, said the fresh estimates would be sent to the ministry by the end of this month. After examining these, the ministry will take a decision whether to go ahead with the same Mumbai-based consultant or engage a new one. He said after getting approval from the ministry, the work on the project could be started within two or three months.

The 1.6 km flyover has been planned from near the GMCH-32 roundabout to the railway overbridge on the Dakshin Marg, passing over the Tribune Chowk. To ease traffic at the Tribune Chowk, which sees a huge traffic of more than 1.43 lakh vehicles daily, including 1.35 lakh passenger car units (PCUs), the then UT Administrator VP Singh Badnore laid the foundation stone of the Rs 184 crore project on March 3, 2019.

On a petition filed by the Run Club, the Punjab and Haryana High Court on November 20, 2019, had stayed the move of the UT Administration to cut 700 trees on both sides of the Dakshin Marg and the Purv Marg to pave the way for the construction of the flyover connecting Zirakpur and Tribune Chowk, along with the construction process.

On May 1, the Punjab and Haryana High Court vacated the stay on the cutting of trees for the project.

The Bench ruled that the stay granted on November 20, 2019, had set Chandigarh back by a decade. The city was conceptualised in 1950 and could not continue to remain the same. Development was an ever-going process. The town was planned for 5 lakh people. But today “we are dealing with the tricity, which is now bounded by Panchkula, Mohali and New Chandigarh, having a population of over 15 lakh”.