Thaindian News

New Delhi, Sep 24 (IANS) Just seven minutes - that is what it will take to travel on the newly-inaugurated Barapullah elevated road connecting the Games Village to the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium. The 4-km road is also the highest in the capital, said an official Friday.
The road will be exclusively catering to the Commonwealth Games being held Oct 3-14 and would be open to the public from Oct 15. The trial run on the road began with around 250 buses being flagged off by Public Works Department Minister Raj Kumar Chauhan.

“The highest point on the road is the stretch above Mathura Road at 20 metres above the ground. Beautiful sights of greenery and historical monuments would greet the motorists throughout the stretch,” Rakesh Mishra, chief engineer of Public Works Department told reporters.

“It will provide a dedicated corridor for movement of around 10,000 players from the Games Village to the stadium during the Games,” said Chauhan.

However, as the government has faced lot of criticism time and again on missing several deadlines, the officials including the minster breathed a sigh of relief on completion of the road.

“There was a lot of pressure on us and some people were even spreading rumours that this road would not be completed on time,” said Chauhan.

“Thanks to the hard work of our engineers and labourers we achieved this feat in record time. We were given three years’ time to build it but we pulled it off in just 20 months,” Chauhan added.

According to officials, the drive between JN Stadium and the Games Village will now take six to seven minutes as against the 40 minutes it takes by the other arterial roads.

The dual carriageway will be a major link between east Delhi and central and south Delhi. It was built by Gurgaon-based DSC Pvt Ltd at a cost of Rs.550 crore.

Some 7,000 participants and officials from 71 teams are expected to attend the Commonwealth Games, India’s biggest sporting event after the 1982 Asian Games.