Case study of how not to plan & build

Delhi, with dense vehicular traffic and under-equipped public transport system, is caught in an endless cycle of building new flyovers, bridges and roads. This can be a healthy sign of urban development. But congestion never ends, and one key issue for this is bad design. And nothing, in recent memory, exemplifies this as much as the Barapullah Phase 3 corridor. It was hailed as a route that would cut travel time between east and south Delhi from an hour to 15 mins. Instead, it's been a gridlock a week since it was opened to public. Commuters expecting quick connectivity now face delays as newly opened elevated stretches collide with legacy bottlenecks.

Such infrastructural nightmare stems from execution failures - most notably where up to 9 high-volume incoming lanes merge into just 2-3 lanes on the existing elevated stretch. There are no proper speed-matching taper zones or adequate warnings, forcing drivers to panic-brake and cut across lanes. This sudden drop in capacity cascades back for kms, paralysing connected arterial highways and ring roads. And Delhi's not alone. In Mumbai, the new SCLR extension to the Western Express Highway dumps elevated traffic straight into chokepoints at its landing ramps. In Bengaluru, the new Silk Board double-decker flyover suffered such safety and merge-design flaws that police were forced to shut down the stretch shortly after its trial earlier this year.

Over ₹1,635 cr of public money was poured into Barapullah 3. When a project delayed by a decade ends up engineering its own gridlock, it's a colossal waste of public funds, citizen time and energy, not to mention wasted fuel. Barapullah 3 should be held up as a case study of how not to plan and build public infra. And, if possible, be fixed.