GURGAON:  One of the two four-lane unidirectional elevated U-turns at Iffco Chowk on NH-8 was thrown open to the public for a trial run on Wednesday. This U-turn will help commuters from MG Road to go towards Delhi. The U-turn on the opposite side, going towards Jaipur, will also open soon.

The U-turn is expected to bring relief to Gurgaon residents by streamlining traffic movement and reducing the congestion on Delhi-Gurgaon expressway. It will make commute to Delhi easier by diverting vehicles coming from Huda City Centre and Mehrauli towards Delhi and Sukhrali. The second U-turn will divert vehicles from Sukhrali and Sector 17/18 towards Jaipur and Mehrauli.

Ashok Sharma, project director, NHAI, said, "During the trial, the speed of vehicles on the flyover will be monitored for safety reasons as the route is new for commuters. As per suggestions of the traffic police, we will put up more signboards on the flyover, if required." The trial will be for 5-10 days.

On the first day, very few commuters were seen using the U-turn flyover in the evening. The flyover was badly lit, with only half of the street-lights working.

Earlier, this project was halted as a crematorium blocked the construction of the U-turn flyover. Saurabh Singhal, traffic transportation expert at Bloom Companies, consultant for the project, said, "The crematorium posed an issue for some time. Eventually, it had to be shifted. The crematorium at Iffco Chowk was over 500 years old. But the shifting of the crematorium was necessary as it was in the way of construction of the U-turn flyover." Huda has identified a new site for the crematorium at Atul Kataria Chowk.

The earlier plan was to open both U-turns at Iffco Chowk from November 15, as TOI reported on Wednesday.

However, Singhal said, "We decided to open the elevated U-turn going towards Delhi. The second U-turn going towards Jaipur has not been opened yet because of overhead high-tension wires. We are in the process of barricading the high-tension wires. This work will be completed within the next five days and the U-turn flyover is likely to open by November 5."

Commuters caught in traffic at Rajiv Chowk and Signature Tower intersections will also get some relief soon. NHAI plans to open underpasses at Rajiv Chowk and a bi-directional underpass at Signature Tower by the end of November. The three projects at Rajiv Chowk, Iffco Chowk and Signature Tower cost a total of Rs 1,004.67 crore.