The much-touted and much-delayed Delhi-Meerut expressway seems to have finally shifted to the fast track. The 96-km-long expressway promises to provide a safe and smooth journey for commuters between Delhi and Meerut.
Chairman of National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) Mr. Raghav Chandra visited the site on Friday to take stock of the work of the expressway being carried out at a cost of Rs. 7,620 crore.
Alternate route
Mr. Chandra also visited the construction site of Eastern Peripheral Expressway at Dasna on Friday.
“At present, there is only one route between Delhi and Meerut i.e. NH-58 on which the traffic remains jammed at several places, thus, causing a lot of inconvenience to the traffic plying between Delhi and Meerut,” said a NHAI spokesperson.
“The NH-24 remains jammed almost throughout the day causing lot of inconvenience to long distance and local traffic. Therefore, to augment the capacity of highway and ensure unhindered fast and safe travel from Delhi to Meerut, Hapur and vice versa, Delhi-Meerut Expressway project has been conceptualised and Prime Minister laid the foundation stone on December 31, 2015,” he said.
Split into four parts
The alignment of Delhi-Meerut expressway begins from Sarai kale khan near outer ring road in Delhi and will continue on existing NH – 24 up to Dasna (28 kms).
From Dasna, there will be a new greenfield alignment up to Meerut.
For early implementation of the project, it has been divided into four separate packages.
The first part is between Sarai Kale Khan in Delhi to Ghazipur at Delhi-UP border with a total length 8.7 km and costing Rs. 9.37 crore.
The second part is between Ghazipur and Dasna, Ghaziabad with total length 19.2 kms and costing Rs. 1,998 crore.
The third part is from Dasna to Hapur with total length of 22.2 km and costing Rs. 1,098 crore. The last part, which would be a greenfield project, is a six-lane expressway from Dasna to Meerut with total length of 46 kms and costing Rs. 3,588 crore.
“There are bottlenecks in the smooth implementation of the project such as encroachments in Pandav Nagar and Vinod Nagar and unauthorised colonies in about 0.5 km stretch and slum area cluster, Nehru Camp Patparganj in about 0.5 km on NH-24 land,” the spokesperson said.
“However, the matter has been taken up with the Delhi government for rehabilitation and resettlement of affected families,” he said.
The project also involves the shifting of many utilities, including high tension electric wires, apart from telephone lines, water pipes, gas pipes etc.
Shifting work
A dedicated utility corridor would be started by the concessionaire shortly and simultaneously the shifting work would start, the spokesperson said.
“The Delhi Development Authority has now officially confirmed that 90 metres right-of-way is available for this section,” he said.
Mr. Chandra assured that NHAI is fully geared up for resolving the site specific issues and all necessary facilitation is being given to concessionaires for expediting the early execution of this project, which aims to provide relief to road users.
At present, the two cities are connected by NH-58, which witnesses frequent and long traffic jams
