NHAI Renews Bid to Hand 20 Links to GMDA

GURUGRAM: The National Highways Authority of India has renewed its push to hand over operation and maintenance of 20 structures along the Delhi-Gurugram Expressway to the Gurugram Metropolitan Development Authority, proposing a joint inspection to list repairs before any transfer.

The move follows an April direction from the secretary in the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways asking NHAI to proceed with the handover. NHAI has nominated its site engineer, a supervision consultant representative and an engineer for the inspection, and has asked GMDA to nominate an officer from its engineering wing.

What would change hands

The package covers six underpasses, 10 foot overbridges, two pedestrian subways and two non-motorised transport passages. The underpasses named by NHAI are at Ambience Mall, IFFCO Chowk, Signature Towers, Rajiv Chowk, Medanta and Hero Honda Chowk. Subways and NMT facilities at IFFCO Chowk and Rajiv Chowk are also on the list. NHAI says the facilities would move only after one-time improvement and rectification works.

NHAI's case is that the structures were built mainly for local traffic, that no user fee is charged on them, and that overlapping jurisdictions with adjoining GMDA roads complicate drainage and engineering work. An NHAI official said waterlogging responses become confused when one stretch sits with the highway authority and the next with the local agency.

That argument sharpened during this year's monsoon, when the Medanta and IFFCO Chowk underpasses were shut after waterlogging. Pedestrian bridges at IFFCO Chowk, Rajiv Chowk and Signature Towers have also drawn complaints about escalators remaining out of service for long stretches, pushing people onto staircases or surface crossings. The NMT facility at Rajiv Chowk has faced recurring waterlogging and occupation issues, while the IFFCO NMT stretch has seen weak maintenance for years.

GMDA has stayed non-committal. An authority official said any proposal would be examined in line with state government directions and the CEO's call, noting that these assets sit on a national highway corridor. GMDA had earlier been reluctant, citing deficiencies in some structures. The joint inspection is meant to put those deficiencies on a shared checklist before anyone signs a maintenance transfer.

For daily users, the stakes are practical: dry underpasses in the rains, working FOB escalators, and one agency to call when water or debris blocks a pedestrian link. Until GMDA accepts or rejects the package with a dated repair list, the 20 structures remain in the grey zone between national highway and city maintenance.

Earlier discussions involving Haryana's chief secretary and the NHAI chairman had already framed the dispute as a maintenance ownership problem rather than a new construction plan. NHAI wants local upkeep because the links serve city movement; GMDA wants defects fixed first so it does not inherit chronic pumping and escalator failures. The joint inspection is the compromise mechanism both sides can point to without signing a blank transfer.

Hero Honda Chowk, Medanta and IFFCO remain the underpasses residents mention first when monsoon water rises. Pedestrians at Signature Towers and Rajiv Chowk FOBs care more about dead escalators than about which logo sits on the maintenance file. If the inspection produces a published defect list and a funded rectification schedule, the handover debate becomes concrete. Without that list, Tuesday's renewal of the NHAI proposal risks becoming another round of letters without drier underpasses.