No Relief and Only Chaos: 7 Flyover Blunders Draining Ahmedabad’s Time and Taxes

Commuters across Ahmedabad are bearing the brunt of severe traffic bottlenecks, dangerous road cave-ins, and wasted public funds as civic infrastructure projects managed by the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation (AMC) and the Ahmedabad Urban Development Authority (AUDA) flounder due to planning oversights and structural failures.

From Bopal and Shilaj to S.G. Highway, Nikol, and C.T.M., daily travel across key city corridors has turned into a nightmare. A string of flawed flyovers, dead-end ramps, and sub-standard construction has cost taxpayers hundreds of crores while offering zero relief on the ground.

Commuter Traps: Flying Bridges That Land Nowhere

Daily drivers on critical city routes are finding newly constructed bridges entirely unusable due to administrative negligence:

• Ghuma–Shilaj Route: Drivers taking AUDA's ₹80-crore Railway Overbridge find the Shilaj exit descending directly into a private compound wall because officials failed to acquire the connecting agricultural land or rezone the Town Planning plot before building.

• Corporate Road / Prahladnagar Corridor: The flyover designed to bypass the congested Corporate Road railway crossing remains a closed dead-end because the landing ramp terminates abruptly in unacquired private farmland. Commuters remain trapped in surface gridlock.

• Ranip–New Ranip Connection: AMC began construction without securing 5,000 square meters of Western Railway land, stalling work for over three years until AMC traded alternative land worth nearly ₹50 crore to resume construction.

Dangerous Structural Failures and Demolitions

For residents along C.T.M., Khokhra, and S.G. Highway, civic blunders pose direct safety hazards. The ₹42-crore Hatkeshwar Flyover, opened in 2017, developed structural cracks within years. Core tests confirmed low-grade concrete far below mandated M35 standards, forcing AMC to permanently seal the bridge in 2022 and order its complete demolition. Criminal FIRs were filed against contractor Ajay Infrastructure alongside suspensions of civic engineers.

At the Sanathal Flyover on the S.G. Highway–Sardar Patel Ring Road junction, the bitumen surface disintegrated just three months after its opening during early monsoon rains, exposing sub-base layers and creating hazardous craters for highway commuters.

Ignored Expert Advice and Cost Overruns

Bad engineering decisions continue to hit civic coffers while creating post-launch bottlenecks:

• Pallav Junction: AMC bypassed expert recommendations from the Central Road Research Institute (CRRI) for an underpass, building a flyover that saw costs surge from ₹64 crore to over ₹104 crore, with an extra ₹18 crore spent shifting high-tension power lines that were missed during planning.

• Ajit Mill Flyover: Workers struck a major municipal water trunk line directly beneath foundation piers post-inauguration, forcing structural redesigns on a project awarded at ₹50.30 crore.

• Jalaram Underpass (Paldi): Opened with fanfare in 2024, the underpass was shut within hours because a high-power mobile transmission tower stood directly in the roadway. Costs inflated from ₹45 crore to ₹83 crore.

• Anjali & Shivranjani Flyovers: Sharp turning radii and steep gradients create permanent collision points and bottleneck jams at the landing zones.

Annual Monsoon Cave-Ins Threaten Daily Commuters

Beyond individual flyover missteps, commuters along Nikol, Vastrapur, C.G. Road, and S.G. Highway service roads face hundreds of road cave-ins and sinkholes every monsoon season.

Utility trenches cut for water, sewer, and telecom lines are routinely backfilled with uncompacted soil. Rainwater penetrates the asphalt, erodes the hollow sub-base, and creates structural collapses. Despite widespread public frustration, civic authorities continue to pass the burden to taxpayers without blacklisting failing contractors or enforcing strict pre-construction oversight.