Jan. 10: Can you imagine an easy zip-drive from Jalukbari to Jorabat without a single stop? It is going to be a reality in the near future.

Four new flyovers coming up on the city’s periphery will allow the residents a smooth drive on the Guwahati bypass of National Highway 37.

The objective of the flyovers will be to eliminate road intersections on the bypass to ensure free and uninterrupted flow of traffic.

A senior government official told The Telegraph that the flyovers would be constructed at Jalukbari, Betkuchi, Khanapara and Jorabat. They will be constructed by National Highway Authority of India (NHAI) with funds from the Centre’s National Highways Development Programme.

“All necessary formalities for the construction of the flyovers have been completed. Preliminary construction has started for the Betkuchi flyover near Rupnath Brahma inter-state bus terminus, while the work on the remaining three flyovers is likely to start after the National Games,” the official said.

The flyover at Betkuchi will have two lanes and around 10 km of service roads. “The contract for construction of the flyover has been awarded to Maheshwari Brothers Limited. Rail India Technical and Economic Services (RITES) has been roped in as supervising consultant,” the official said, adding that the flyover is likely to be completed by the end of this year.

It may be recalled that Dispur had requested the highway authorities for a grade separator-like flyover in front of the bus terminus to ensure smooth movement of traffic to and from it. The official said the basic idea behind construction of the Betkuchi flyover is to avoid any conflict between the traffic on the highway and the vehicles making entry or exit from the terminus. “Construction of these flyovers is necessary to keep the East-West corridor free of interruptions like road and rail intersections,” the officer said.

The Guwahati bypass of National Highway 37 is part of the East-West corridor.

Funds for construction of the flyovers will be drawn from the Rs. 5,600 crore earmarked for the East-West corridor in Assam under highway development programme, he said.

“After this, the flyover at Jorbat will be constructed at the point where the GS Road separates from NH 37,” the officer said.

He said once the flyovers at Khanapara and Jalukbari are completed, traffic on the national highway would pass over the roundabouts at the two places.

According to him, the flyover at Jalukbari will have two 3-lane carriageways and each will have separate foundations, substructure and superstructure. The total length of the flyover will be 243 metres.

The construction of the Jalukbari flyover was included in a project for building a new bridge over the Brahmaputra near the existing Saraighat bridge. The bridge will be constructed by Gammon India Limited at a cost of Rs 238 crore.

“Some of the problems in the city roads are lack of access control on main roads, roundabouts with inadequate weaving length, high parking demand on the main streets and frequent conflict between traffic flow and parking manoeuvres. These flyovers will address some of these problems at the important junctions, including entry routes to the city,” the officer said.

“It is expected that the new flyovers will the ease traffic woes of Guwahati’s burgeoning population and also reduce travel time and fuel consumption,” he added.

Proposed sites:
• Khanapara roundabout
• Jorabat intersection
• Jalukabari roundabout
• Betkuchi, near the inter-state bus terminus

Who will construct?
National Highway Authority of India with funds from National Highway Development
Programme

Present status:
• Preliminary works for construction of Betkuchi flyover has started
• Work on the remaining flyovers to start after National Games