Big highway to be inaugurated in Delhi! 59-km long stretch to bring relief to residents, decongest city

The Centre's Delhi decongestion drive is picking up pace. Yesterday, the capital saw the inauguration of the new flyover and underpass between Northern Mahipalpur Bypass Road and Airport Road, and today Transport Minister Nitin Gadkari will lay the foundation stone for a six-lane access-controlled national highway project at Kalindi Kunj-Meethapur Road.

The over 59-km long highway project will start at Ring Road-DND junction and passing through Kalindi bypass and Faridabad-Ballabhgarh bypass. It will finish at the interchange of Delhi-Mumbai Expressway at KMP. According to a government statement, the project cost is pegged at Rs 3,580 crore.

The project will have three-lane service roads each on either sides for about 29 km, an over 7 km of elevated section with two level crossings at four locations of metro line, 18 new underpasses, and nine interchanges with improved junctions. "The project will decongest Delhi with reduction of traffic in Ashram-Badarpur-Faridabad-Ballabhgarh region. This is expected to result in reduction of vehicular pollution," the statement added.

Meanwhile, the newly-inaugurated flyover will provide better connectivity between Indira Gandhi International Airport and South Delhi, while reducing traffic congestion on the Mehrauli - Mahipalpur Road. According to the government, about 28,000 people travelling through this area will benefit from this project directly. This will lead to saving of about 14,000 man hours daily and a saving of 30 lakh litres of fuel each year. Moreover, the carbon footprint will reportedly reduce by 7,000 tonnes per year.

There are nine other projects being implemented for decongesting the National Capital Region, including the 3 km signal-free corridor from Dhaula Kuan to airport at a cost of Rs 280 crore, which is about 40% complete, the 31.3 km, six-lane access controlled corridor from Akshardham NH-24 Junction to EPE Junction on Baghpat Road at a cost of about Rs 2,600 crore, the 29 km, eight-lane access controlled Dwarka Expressway costing about Rs 9,500 crore, and the 22 km, six-lane elevated corridor on the Gurugram-Sohna Road costing Rs 2,000 crore.

The statement added that the project line-up also includes the Rangpuri Bypass to connect Dwarka/NH-08 with Vasant Kunj-Nelson Mandela Road at a cost of Rs 1,000 crore; 75 km Urban Extension Road, third Ring Road for Delhi under the Bharatmala project pegged to cost Rs 4,000 crore; the eight-lane highway from Mukarba Chowk to Panipat on NH-1; package II, III and IV of Delhi-Meerut Expressway costing Rs 5,900 crore; and the four-laning of the 124 km Khekra-EPE junction to Shamli-Saharanpur.

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(With PTI inputs)