A ₹1,635 crore elevated corridor cutting signal-free through the heart of the capital — that is what Union Home Minister Amit Shah handed over to Delhi commuters on Tuesday, 29 September 2026, as part of a sweeping ₹1,941 crore infrastructure push for the national capital.

Barapullah Phase-3: East meets South, without a single red light

The centrepiece of the day was the formal dedication of the Barapullah Elevated Road Phase-3, built at a cost of ₹1,635 crore. Shah described the project as delivering 'signal-free connectivity between eastern and southern Delhi' — a corridor that promises to slash travel times and dissolve the gridlock that has long plagued residents commuting between the two zones. The elevated format means vehicles glide above intersections rather than queuing through them, a design philosophy that has proved effective on earlier phases of the same corridor.

Delhi's traffic problem is structural: a city of over 20 million people squeezed into a dense urban grid where road capacity has consistently lagged population growth. Elevated corridors and grade-separated intersections are the Union government's preferred lever to buy the capital breathing room — and Barapullah Phase-3 is the latest, and most expensive, expression of that bet.

Modi Mill flyover and Loni underpass: the next two bets

Beyond the ribbon-cutting, Shah also laid the foundation stones for two additional projects: the Modi Mill–Savitri Cinema Flyover and the Loni Underpass. Both are at the beginning of their construction arcs, meaning the relief they promise is still months away — but their groundbreaking on the same day signals an intent to keep the capital's infrastructure pipeline full rather than allowing gaps between project completions.

Taken together, the three projects represent a coordinated attempt to attack congestion from multiple nodes simultaneously — the elevated road for the east-south spine, the flyover for a notoriously choked south Delhi junction, and the underpass for the Loni stretch feeding into the city's northern approaches.

Central government's running tab on Delhi roads

The pattern here is deliberate and recurring. Union ministries have repeatedly stepped in to fund and inaugurate Delhi road projects in coordination with local agencies, positioning the Centre as the primary engine of urban mobility investment in the capital. The Barapullah corridor itself is a multi-phase project that has been under construction across successive governments, with each phase adding kilometres of signal-free travel to a city that badly needs it.

For ordinary Delhiites, the arithmetic is simple: less time in traffic means more time everywhere else. Whether Phase-3 delivers on that promise at scale will be tested in the weeks after it opens to full traffic flow.