You could call it a high-stakes move for connectivity in the National Capital Region. The Centre is mulling over an underpass to put Delhi’s IGI and Noida’s new airport in closer contact. In its current form, the plan is about making the trip from one to the other quicker and taking some of the load off our overtaxed surface routes.
Why this tunnel matters for NCR mobility
It’s not just a straight line from A to B; the thinking is to put together a network that can change how traffic moves in the region. If you can put the long-haul airport comings and goings below ground, you free up room on the main arteries and have a quick way for the important trips to get through.
Down at Sarai Kale Khan, for instance, the corridor is set to be part of the Delhi-Mumbai Expressway. From there, a link road at Chandawali-Jewar will put you in Noida International Airport. It’s a way to bring Jewar into the fold of the intercity grid and take some of the pressure off the radial corridors we rely on now.
Central Delhi access and dispersal
To make sure you can get in and out with ease, they are looking at a number of options. There is an entrance in the works near Talkatora Stadium, for one. For the hundreds of thousands who live in Karol Bagh, Patel Nagar, Rajendra Place or Connaught Place, it would be a welcome shortcut when the roads are at their worst.
Status and scope of the study
The Union Ministry of Road Transport and Highways and the NHAI have started to put some numbers to it. “We have set in motion studies to build a tunnel from Talkatora to IGI and on to Gurugram,” says Harsh Malhotra, the Union Minister of State for Road Transport and Highways. “After that, we will look at the piece from Talkatora to Sarai Kale Khan.”
Don’t read too much into it yet, though. Sources at the NHAI will tell you it’s all still in the conceptual stage. There’s nothing formal on the table. When we have a final alignment, we’ll put together a Detailed Project Report with the hard facts on cost and timing.
For what it’s worth, here is the word from officials:
– Feasibility is being looked at
– You won’t find any formal go-ahead or DPR as of now
– We are examining several ways in and out
– The exact route is not a done deal
The two-part corridor under review
What you have is a pair of connected pieces to make up an underground spine. One side of it is the run from Talkatora to Gurugram, past IGI. The other is a line from the stadium to Sarai Kale Khan to hook up with the expressway.
This way of doing things lets the engineers see how the traffic plays out in different areas and sequence a job of this size. It also leaves the door open for down the road if we want to extend or commission in stages.
Airport-to-airport impact and competition
Put simply, the tunnel is there to put the two big aviation hubs in the NCR in better communication. With less of a bottleneck, it changes the dynamic for anyone moving from one to the other – be it a passenger, crew or some time-critical freight.
Then you have the strategy: the Gurugram side puts you in with a business district and the airport, while the Sarai Kale Khan end is on a national expressway. In the end, it should make for a bigger market for Jewar and even out the flow on the transport network.
What comes next
It’s a matter of nailing down an alignment, seeing if the demand is there and sizing up the engineering side of things. After that, the DPR will do its job of laying out the costs and the how-tos. But don’t expect shovels in the ground until we have the green light. It’s a decision with some heft to it for the NCR.
