Gujaratstartups, AHMEDABAD: The 30-km stretch from Sanand to Gandhinagar will have eight flyovers by 2012, taking the travel time between these points to 25 minutes which is half of what it takes now after negotiating irritating crossroads.

The last flyover to get a nod was near Gota crossing whose proposal has been sent to the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI). Currently, the stretch has three flyovers.

Officials said the flyovers were planned with the intention to provide quicker and uninterrupted travel to Gandhinagar. The current flyovers are at High Court, Khodiyar Crossroads and the third ahead of Adalaj Crossroads.

The construction of the flyover at ISKCON Crossroads has already begun and is estimated to cost Rs 22 crore and those at Thaltej, Sanand Gota and Adalaj Crossroads are in the pipeline. The state highways department has sought approval of the NHAI to have more flyovers on the Sarkhej-Gandhinagar highway. This is in addition to the expansion of the highway from the existing four-lane to a six-lane one.
Associate director, CEPT University, Sivanand Swamy, says, "These crossroads would mean uninterrupted travel. The crossroads at which these flyover are planned were handling traffic beyond their capacity."

Officials say, "The entire highway would be converted to six lanes besides the service lane. The cost of five additional flyovers would top Rs 165 crore."

They said that the decision to have six lanes was taken after anticipating at least 25 per cent increase in vehicular traffic on this stretch in the next two years.

The state government has already begun widening the 5-km stretch of Sarkhej-Gandhinagar Highway between Thaltej Gurdwara and Sanand Crossroads, said officials.

The width of the four-lane highway between Thaltej Gurdwara and Sanand Crossroads is 17 metres which will be increased to 24.5 metres.

Source: Times Of India