Bhubaneswar, Aug. 13: The much talked-about Rajmahal flyover, which is expected to be opened to the public soon, has an underpass below its central pillars.

At a later stage, the underpass could be used to facilitate smooth flow of traffic on Janpath. Though there was no immediate plan to use the underpass, official sources said the government might take up the project at a later stage.

While 30 pillars of the flyover go four metres deep into the ground, the two central pillars were dug 12 metres deep for the underpass.

As work to construct roads to and from the underpass is not being carried out now, a large part of the underground structure has been covered with two side roads for vehicular movement.

The 1.1km underpass was supposed to run from Sishu Bhavan till the middle of the Master Canteen-Rajmahal Square stretch. According to the plan, 360 metres of the underpass was to be covered with concrete slabs to facilitate roads on both sides of the flyover from Kalpana Square to AG Square.

Sources in the public works department (PWD) said the Rajmahal Square road network project was to be built in two phases— first the flyover and then the underpass. While Rs 37 crore was earmarked for the flyover, Rs 40 crore was proposed for the tunnel.

“Two years ago the works department floated a tender for the tunnel and related work, but it was cancelled. Lack of funds could be the reason for that,” a PWD engineer said.

“For now, we have decided to conceal the base of the tunnel under the flyover. In future, it could be part of the ambitious project. If we had not dug this portion of the tunnel while building the flyover, we could not have dug it later. For now, we only created the path for the tunnel along the two central pillars. We will extend the tunnel on both sides in the future,’’ said executive engineer of PWD division-II Ranjit Kumar Sahu.

The PWD’s version, however, fail to convince local residents.

“The construction of the base of the tunnel sounds futuristic, but considering the leisurely way in which the flyover was executed, the tunnel work would again cause problems around the Rajmahal Square and consequently cause trouble for the commuters. It should have been done in one go,’’ said Piyush Ranjan Rout, an urban development practitioner.

“The excavation of the central part of the tunnel under the two central pillars of the flyover took a long time and also delayed the work. I do not understand why the authorities took the pain to include it in another plan,’’ he said.