Underpass project at Bhairon Marg set to miss its deadline

Delhi's unprecedented July floods led to a pile-up of silt and shifted heavy structures at the underpass being built along the Bhairon Marg, which will now be delayed well beyond this year, officials said on Monday.

- Snehil Sinha

The underpass No 5 is part of the Pragati Maidan integrated transit corridor, and was first meant to have opened in December 2022. The complicated nature of the work the underpass runs through a section with an active railway overbridge meant it was delayed and a new deadline set for before the G20 Summit this month.

But work has been halted since July, when the Yamuna swelled to a record 208.33m, inundating large parts of the Capital.

At the heart of the problem is the technique used to make the underpass. The Public Works Department (PWD) uses what is known as box-push technique. As the name suggests, fabricated boxes that are open on either ends are pushed in, creating the solid form of the tunnel. These boxes are pushed in through embankments of rail or road by jacking system.

"Completing this stretch was already a difficult task with active railway lines overhead.