Tricity Metro casts shadow over Tribune Chowk flyover in Chandigarh

The UT Administration is going to review the Tribune Chowk flyover project in view of the proposed Metro route passing along the same route.

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Sources said the administration was considering evaluating the requirement of the flyover in the light of the proposed Metro project for the city.

“Since Metro is being planned along the same route, it will eliminate the need to construct a flyover at Tribune Chowk,” said an official.

Falls on Metro route

Since Metro is being planned along the same route, it will eliminate the need to construct a flyover at Tribune Chowk. A UT official

During a meeting with the Centre in June, it was decided that due to the heritage nature of Chandigarh, the Metro corridors in the city shall run underground. Accordingly, Corridor-1 from the PU to Sector 26 and Corridor-2 from Sukhna Lake to Sector 43/44 shall be underground.

After the directions of the Punjab and Haryana High Court, the Union Ministry of Road Transport and Highways in June had asked the UT Administration to submit fresh estimates for the proposed flyover. In fresh estimates prepared on the directions of the Union Ministry, which will fund the construction the project, its cost has jumped from Rs183 crore to Rs 203 crore in the past five years.

The ministry had approved Rs 183 crore for the project in 2019, before the project was stalled due to the High Court stay on cutting of trees. Five years later, the project cost has increased to Rs 203 crore.

The sources, however, said even after nearly three months, the Administration was yet to send the revised estimates of the flyover project to the ministry.

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.

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

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 includes Panchkula, Mohali and New Chandigarh, having a population of over 15 lakh”.

To ease traffic at the chowk, which sees more than 1.43 lakh vehicles daily, the then UT Administrator VP Singh Badnore had laid the foundation stone of the Rs 184 crore project on March 3, 2019.