Delhi's Barapullah Phase III flyover opens, sees 3-km jam on Day 1
Motorists using Delhi’s newly inaugurated Barapullah Phase-III flyover faced heavy congestion on Wednesday and Thursday, with traffic police putting up barricades at the entrance.
The congestion began just a day after the long-pending project was inaugurated by Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Tuesday, September 29. According to commuters, traffic was particularly affected between Mayur Vihar Phase-I and Sarai Kale Khan.
The flyover was opened to commuters on Wednesday, September 30. Commuters complained of traffic congestion from that very day. By late Thursday, October 1, however, the traffic police claimed that the flow of traffic had become normal.
"There was traffic congestion for some time. We had advised commuters to use the DND or Akshardham route. However, with the barricades removed, traffic is now normal and commuters are travelling without any hassle," a senior traffic police officer was quoted as saying by news agency PTI.
The carriageway from AIIMS towards Mayur Vihar was also opened on Thursday afternoon, facilitating movement of traffic on the newly opened corridor, Public Works Department (PWD) officials said.
This came a day after several commuters said traffic from Mayur Vihar Phase-1 towards the Sarai Kale Khan was crawling, with a tailback nearly 3 km long.
One of them, cited by PTI, said he was stuck for about 40 minutes while travelling from Mayur Vihar Phase-1 towards central Delhi during the afternoon on Wednesday.
Meanwhile, another commuter claimed it took 55 minutes to reach the first intersection point of the flyover.
Others said the promised reduction in travel time from Mayur Vihar Phase-1 to AIIMS, was far from visible on the first day of operationalisation of the elevated corridor.
A video on social media purportedly showed vehicles stuck on the flyover.Barapullah Phase III corridor is an example of poor urban planning. Yesterday I took this flyover around 12:30am and the whole stretch towards AIIMS was choked. I was stuck there for 2 hrs and had to take the exit towards Ashram else it would have taken me much longer to reach pic.twitter.com/tHs8Z6S6Qw— Gonika Arora (@AroraGonika) October 1, 2026BARAPULLAH PHASE 3: BRIEF OVERVIEW
The Barapullah Phase 3 project, built at a cost of approximately Rs 1,635 crore, was approved in 2014, with work beginning in 2015. Initially, it was scheduled for completion in 2017.
However, the project faced several delays, pushing up its cost. The recently inaugurated corridor connects Mayur Vihar Phase-I on the Noida Link Road with Sarai Kale Khan on the Ring Road.
It merges with the existing Barapullah network to create a continuous, signal-free stretch of about 9 km up to the AIIMS roundabout.
The corridor was planned with the aim of easing traffic on the DND and Akshardham routes.
However, ahead of the inauguration, experts had flagged concerns that the flyover – meant to offer an alternative to the Delhi-Noida Direct (DND) flyway – could add to congestion near Sarai Kale Khan.- Ends(Based on inputs from PTI, with additional inputs from Sushant Mehra)
