There is a flyover coming up in the Pulbangash/Bara Hindu Rao area of central Delhi, north of the Sadar Bazaar area and west of Old Delhi, that’s going to cut into some parts of Delhi that date back to the late-19th/early-20th c. Most of the buildings have been “updated” since then and much of the landscape has changed, but this is an outlying part of the “core” area of Delhi that constituted Delhi before 1947. It might not even have been considered “outlying” if one added the growth around Old Sabzi Mandi and Karol Bagh areas in the early 20th c.

In any case, because the road known as Rani Jhansi Marg (connecting Jhandewalan with Sabzi Mandi) bottlenecks at Bara Hindu Rao/Pulbangash to negotiate the dense old urban form of the area, it is often a traffic nightmare, necessitating this flyover. Ideally there could have been a different alignment to the flyover that avoided the demolition of this urban fabric, and in fact the project has been on hold or barely edging along for many years now, probably due to various litigations against it, but ultimately it seems like the demolitions will be inevitable.

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The flyover, turning from Nityanand Marg (Tis Hazari courts) at its northern end towards Bara Hindu Rao at it’s southern end, is currently halted as it crosses the railway tracks (passing below the Pulbangash bridge at the center of the picture), just before it will begin to eat into the Nawab Ganj/Azad Market area (to the right of the picture)

Seeing the flyover from the edge of Nawab Ganj

Looking towards Nawab Ganj/Azad Market and all it’s traffic from the Pulbangash railway bridge

Traffic through the Azad Market area

Some of the Nawab Ganj structures that will be demolished due to the flyover

There is also a mosque that may or may not be in the way

Some areas already demolished, near where the other side of the flyover (the Bara Hindu Rao end towards Jhandewalan/Karol Bagh) has reached

The flyover coming up from the Bara Hindu Rao end

An old school building demolished to make way for the flyover

Flyover construction, new building construction and old building demolition at the Bara Hindu Rao end

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I also took some photos of the flyover construction along Nityanand Marg (along it’s northern end near Tis Hazari courts), and though I might as well add them to this post.

Delhi Metro’s Red Line viaduct to the left and the new flyover to the right

Metro viaduct and flyover

Flyover construction along Nityanand Marg