Ahmedabad: A flyover being built on SG Highway has hit an unusual and costly roadblock — one of its pillars has been constructed directly over a 900 mm-diameter trunk water pipeline of Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation (AMC). The pipeline will now have to be relocated, with the AMC standing committee approving the proposal on Thursday.The flyover is being jointly constructed by the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) and the state govt’s roads and buildings department (R&B). It runs from Iskcon Bridge, past Karnavati Club and Prahladnagar Junction, towards YMCA Club. The clash has occurred at pillar P-27, where the pile cap — the concrete foundation anchoring the pillar — was designed and built over the existing Jaspur main trunk water pipeline.An AMC official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said, “A decision has been taken to shift the existing 900mm diameter Jaspur main trunk pipeline. Since the pillar is being constructed over the main trunk pipeline in the bridge design, plans have been made to decommission the branch line and connect it across SG Highway. Approval has been granted for this work.”The incident has also highlighted a larger problem in planning major infrastructure projects — underground utilities are often not adequately surveyed before designs are finalised and construction begins.The official said, “Underground utilities are generally not surveyed beforehand when flyover designs are prepared. Moreover, during SG Highway development and bridge construction works, pillars are sometimes built directly over underground utilities and manholes are covered up, which also leads to waterlogging issues.”Meanwhile, the growing volume of traffic on SG Highway is driving the construction of more elevated structures. A senior AMC source said, “Vehicle traffic on the SG Highway passing through the western part of Ahmedabad city has been increasing. Due to this rising traffic on SG Highway, more flyovers are currently being constructed.”SG Highway already has four major elevated structures — the Iskcon flyover, Sola flyover and Gota Crossroads flyover. Yet congestion continues, particularly after vehicles descend from the Gota flyover towards Jagatpur, Chharodi and Nirma University.AMC sources said traffic snarls frequently occur at three-way and four-way junctions along this stretch. To address the bottlenecks, plans are now underway for another flyover beginning near Gota bridge and bypassing the Jagatpur and Chharodi junctions before reaching the Nirma University stretch.
