It is difficult for commuters to travel between Central Delhi and Noida, Ghaziabad, and Southeast Delhi to ITO, India Gate, and other locations because the Pragati Maidan Tunnel is closed for traffic movement at night. This is despite the fact that officials from the Public Works Department (PWD) have stated that they have finished repairing the tunnel.

The tunnel, which is approximately 2.1 kilometres in length and was built in 2022 as part of the Pragati Maidan corridor renovation project, closes at approximately midnight and opens in the morning between the hours of 6 and 6:30. In the past, officials have stated that in order to complete the repairs that were being done inside the tunnel, they decided to seal the section during the late night hours.

There are problems with the electricity during the night, according to a PWD official. Throughout the tunnel, there are numerous instances of power outages, which result in the lights and surveillance cameras being turned off... In addition to this, there is no network within the stretch... So, in order to prevent any form of unpleasant incident, it is blocked to traffic during the nighttime hours... Efforts are being made by the department to resolve these concerns...

The tunnel has been blocked during the night for the past two months, according to a senior official from the Public Works Department. A period of time passed during which it was open for a few days, but after that, the stretch required repair, which is difficult to perform during the day... Therefore, the tunnel is closed during the night, and tasks like as cleaning and maintenance are carried out during these hours.

A few months after the tunnel was inaugurated, it began to experience problems such as seepage from the walls and waterlogging. In addition, the tunnel was shut down for almost one month in the previous year owing to waterlogging.

PWD issued a notice to L&T Construction, the company that was responsible for carrying out the project, in February, stating that the tunnel posed a "potential threat to the life of the passengers." The notice required L&T Construction to pay a fine of Rs 500 crore. In addition to that, it highlighted "flaws and design deficiencies."

In addition, the Public Works Department (PWD) had established a five-person expert group in order to evaluate the approach that was used to address the water leakage concerns that were occurring within the main Pragati Maidan tunnel. The repair work had begun on March 20. As a consequence of this, the tunnel was shut down for a period of three days, and subsequently it was shut down every day during the late-night hours.

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