PWD, which has already got permission from UTTIPEC for the U-turn, had applied to DND for transfer of land. DND officials wrote to PWD on Tuesday after inspecting the site. They suggested that an independent traffic expert be jointly appointed for studying the project and coming up with alternatives as the current plan would result in a traffic nightmare.

“The U-turn is meant to benefit residents of Kilokri and nearby areas who want to travel across the road towards Maharani Bagh. They have to turn left at the start of the flyway towards Sarai Kale Khan, take a U-turn, get onto the Delhi connect of DND and emerge at Ashram, a route that easily takes 15 minutes, or more in case of a jam. The U-turn will cut this down to five minutes or so,” said a PWD source.

However, DND spokesman Anwer Abbasi says this U-turn will cause several bottlenecks. “A signal is needed to regulate the heavy traffic flow towards Ashram. When traffic from the Delhi-connect side is allowed to move, that coming from Noida has to wait, leading to a pile-up till Yamuna Bridge. If a U-turn is provided on this road, there would be a jam on the turn itself as well as on the road towards Noida,” he said.

Ashram Road has three lanes. Traffic is expected to back up as well, according to the DND administration, since the Delhi-connect road is three lanes and the flyway has four lanes. “In addition to the seven-lane traffic already opening into the three-lane road is a two-lane U-turn. There is no scope for widening Ashram Road with Maharani Bagh on one side and Kilokri on the other. PWD needs to devise a way of accommodating this traffic. Furthermore, Delhi Metro is carrying out work at Ashram Chowk till 2017 which will be another hindrance,” said Abbasi.

The other concern is traffic will clash on DND Flyway once Kalindi Bypass becomes operational. “The traffic using the bypass to go towards Noida will take a cut that will loop over DND about 200m from the entry point through a downward ramp. To build the U-turn, PWD proposes to shift the main carriageway towards Noida so that it forms a curve that follows the trajectory of Kalindi Bypass and connect it with the flyway at roughly the same point. This will also lead to a conflict in traffic since we expect the bypass to cater largely to heavy vehicles,” said Abbasi.