Bureaucratic Sluggishness Leaves ₹50-Crore Bhat Underpass on the Drawing Board for Four Years

The recent opening of the new cable bridge at Rajasthan Circle in Bhat was supposed to finally end the daily gridlock for commuters. Yet, a major part of the traffic solution is completely missing. For the past four years, local urban planners have quietly sat on an approved ₹50-crore underpass that was meant to run directly beneath the flyover.

The underpass was cleared for construction back in 2022. Instead of building it alongside the bridge to save public money and minimise commuter hassle, the Ahmedabad Urban Development Authority (AUDA) and the state Roads and Buildings (R&B) department left the plans gathering dust. Now, in 2026, officials are attempting a late fix by wrapping the forgotten project into a broader highway widening scheme.

A Common-Sense Plan That Fell Apart

The bottleneck at Rajasthan Circle, a critical junction on the 76-kilometre Sardar Patel (SP) Ring Road, has troubled motorists for years. In 2019, the state's Capital Project Division greenlit the ₹135.7-crore cable flyover, with AUDA agreeing to foot half the bill.

Realizing that the bridge alone wouldn't fully clear the junction, AUDA asked the project’s architectural firm, HCP Design Planning and Management, to draw up plans for a connecting underpass. The logic was simple: keep the builder uniform, construct both elements at the same time, and use any leftover savings from the bridge budget to help fund the underpass.

The engineers handed over the detailed designs and cost estimates on 5 April 2022. AUDA even finalised the paperwork detailing which department would handle monsoon flooding and traffic management at the site. But as soon as the ink dried on the approvals, the underpass plan was completely dropped, while work on the bridge moved ahead.

Playing Catch-Up

Because the underpass never left the paper stage, the newly opened bridge only shifts the traffic problem rather than solving it. To rectify the mistake, AUDA now intends to fold the delayed underpass into a massive ₹2,200-crore project to widen the entire SP Ring Road to six lanes.

An AUDA official, speaking on the condition of anonymity, acknowledged the failure to act. "The underpass was approved in 2022, but for some reason, the work never started. We are now going to build it at Bhat Circle as part of the upcoming ring road expansion."

While departments are now pitching this as part of a major future upgrade, local drivers are stuck facing ongoing construction delays for a project that should have been finished years ago.