NHAI Halts Ambience-Cyber City Soil Testing

GURUGRAM: The National Highways Authority of India on Monday stopped soil investigation for a proposed six-lane flyover between Ambience Mall and Cyber City after finding that drilling was under way on the main service road without the specific permission required for that location.

NHAI officials said the agency executing the tests had permission for soil investigation, including bore logging, but the clearance did not cover drilling on the main service road, especially near the edge of a flyover retaining wall. Barricades and diversions set up for the work had already slowed vehicles on the service road, with queues stretching towards the pedestrian underpass on the expressway.

The proposed flyover has in-principle approval and is meant to give direct connectivity from the Ambience Mall U-turn underpass towards Cyber City. Plans describe a six-lane elevated structure above the existing four-lane service road, which would keep carrying traffic below. Ramps would let vehicles from the U-turn underpass join the elevated corridor towards Cyber City and IFFCO Chowk. The design aim is to cut conflicts between through traffic bound for Cyber City and Udyog Vihar and vehicles emerging from the Ambience Mall side.

Utility risk is not theoretical on this belt. Last month a wide sinkhole opened near IFFCO Chowk after a master sewer pipeline was damaged. That episode is why NHAI's insistence on radar checks before boreholes on the service road carries weight with engineers who manage the corridor. Drilling next to a retaining wall without a clear utility map can turn a survey into a fresh civic emergency.

Commuters already treat the Ambience-Cyber City service road as a fragile link during peak hours. Any soil-test barricade that sits on the main service carriageway compounds delay even before construction of the flyover begins. Shifting bore locations to approved green patches would keep the survey alive without occupying the lane that office traffic needs.

The Monday stop-work order does not cancel the flyover idea. It resets the sequence: confirm where boreholes are allowed, finish utility scanning where required, then resume investigation off the main service road. Until that order of operations is followed, NHAI has chosen to halt drilling rather than risk another underground failure on one of Gurugram's busiest approach corridors.

An NHAI official said bore logging on the service road should not proceed without first mapping the ground profile through ground-penetrating radar because several underground utilities run through the corridor. Suitable nearby spots, preferably green spaces, could be used instead. The work has been stopped for now, the official said, and a formal letter is being issued to the agency. A representative of the agency said the necessary permission for soil investigation had been obtained, underscoring the dispute over where that permission applies.