ORR repairs leave areas nearby choking on dust

Commuters navigate a dusty road near Panchsheel Park in south Delhi on Thursday, as ongoing road repairs and recarpeting work blanket localities near Outer Ring Road in a thick layer of dust. SANCHIT KHANNA/HT

- Snehil Sinha

NEW DELHI: Residents and commuters along the Outer Ring Road (ORR) in south Delhi are struggling with heavy traffic and worsening dust pollution due to ongoing road repairs. The worst-affected areas include Nehru Place, Chirag Delhi, and Savitri Flyover, where dust clouds have become an everyday challenge.

A spot check by HT on Thursday morning found the stretch from Panchsheel Park to Chirag Delhi blanketed in dust as vehicles crawled through the congestion and pedestrians shielded their faces.

"This road already has a high traffic flow and now, it takes over half an hour to cross the small stretch near Chirag Delhi. You can't roll down the car window due to the thick dust cloud," said Sunny Jaiswal, a commuter who frequents Chirag Delhi.

Ankita Agarwal, another commuter who crosses the stretch on foot, said the problem has worsened in the past 10 days.