Ghaziabad: The National Highways Authority of India will construct a foot overbridge over NH9/DME to check jaywalking and provide direct connectivity between Vijay Nagar and Krishan Babu Nagar. The overbridge, to be built at Rs 13 crore, will be equipped with lifts and completed within a year.The 20-km stretch of NH-9/DME from UP Gate to Dasna currently has two overbridges at Chijarsi and Noida Sector 62. They are 82m long and 2.5m wide, with ramps and staircases on both sides. The Vijay Nagar foot overbridge, with a similar model, will also have lifts.Despite the stretch having two overbridges and around 10 underpasses, traffic has grown sharply, with Vijay Nagar among the most congested areas as traffic merges near the police station.“There’s been demand to construct a foot overbridge between Vijay Nagar and Krishan Babu Nagar for a long time. Ghaziabad’s elected representative Atul Garg, MP, and Ghaziabad city MLA Sanjeev Sharma, under whose constituency the area falls, had also demanded a foot overbridge at this spot, which they said will benefit at least 6 lakh population,” an official from NHAI said, adding that the foundation stone has already been laid.Satish Tyagi, a resident, said that the Vijay Nagar section is the busiest and most congested stretch of the highway. “In a recent NHAI survey, it had the most number of illegal cuts. The stretch is also near Ghaziabad railway station and people travelling to Delhi and towards Dasna and Meerut board buses at Vijay Nagar. Most of the time, instead of taking the underpass, passengers cross the road over to other side, which is dangerous. The new foot overbridge will see an end to it,” Tyagi added.
