Modi to flag off Escorts Mujesar-Ballabgarh section of Delhi Metro’s Violet Line, lay foundation stone of Vishwakarma Skill University
After delay of nine years, Prime Minister Narendra Modi will inaugurate much awaited Rs 6,400 crore Kundli-Manesar-Palwal (KMP), also known as Western Peripheral Expressway (WPE), at Sultanpur village Gurugram on November 19.
Also, Modi will inaugurate the 3.2 km-long Escorts Mujesar-Ballabgarh section of Delhi Metro’s Violet Line and lay foundation stone of Vishwakarma Skill University, Dudhola Palwal. Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar, along with his Cabinet Ministers, will also be present on the occasion.
The Expressway will not only ease burden of heavy traffic using Delhi as transit point but also provide high-speed link between northern Haryana and southern districts.
It will facilitate uninterrupted high-speed link for traffic, especially commercial traffic, from Haryana to the neighbouring States.
The expressway will act as a Delhi bypass for traffic coming from north of Delhi on NH-1 and going to south of Delhi on NH2 and to the west along NH-8.
Once the KMP expressway is fully operational, vehicles going from North India to the Western and Southern parts of the country would be able to do so without entering into Delhi.
According to officials, Rs 6,400 crore had been spent on the expressway project and 3,846 acre was acquired at a cost of Rs 2,788 crore. The design speed of the expressway is 120 kmph for light vehicles and 100 kmph for heavy ones.
The length of the Kundli to Manesar stretch is over 83 km. The stretch would have 14 major/minor bridges, 56 underpass/agricultural vehicular underpasses, seven intersections and seven toll plazas.
The width of the median at the stretch has been kept at 8 km. Similarly, the Manesar-Palwal stretch is over 52 km long. The expressway also has eight small and six large bridges, four railway overbridges and 34 underpasses and 64 pedestrian crossings.
Officials said two rows of shrubs would be planted in the median. Apart from this, tress like neem, arjun, keekar, kanail, peepal and sheesham would be planted near the extreme end of two rows on each side. In June 2012, in a multi parties meeting attended by Haryana, Delhi, the Centre and the developers in which a revised deadline of May 2013 was fixed.
However, due to delay in construction, Haryana State Industrial and Infrastructure Development Corporation (HSIIDC) decided to penalize the company in April 2012 after which the dispute went to the court and the project was stalled.
Later on, the lenders led by the IDBI Bank served the concessionaire KMP Expressway with a substitution notice due to its continued defaults in the performance of its financial and other obligations. Subsequently, then Haryana Government decided to terminate it contract and pay lenders of Rs 1,300crore as termination fee.
In 2014, the project was revived. Following that the 53 km stretch between Manesar and Palwal was opened in April 2016. It was inaugurated by Union Minister of Road Transport and Highways of India, Nitin Gadkari, and was opened for the public in April 2016.
The original deadline for this project conceived by former Prime Minister late Atal Bihari Vajpayee in 2002 was July 2009 but missed several deadlines due to various reasons including land acquisition hurdles.
Along with the Eastern Peripheral Expressway (EPW), the KMP expressway is expected to divert more than 50,000 heavy vehicles away from Delhi.
The six-lane expressway will have parking lots, refilling stations, police stations, a trauma centre, helipad, refreshment centres, and recreational facilities.
The WPE was first proposed in 2003 along with Delhi EPE. It was envisioned as a Build Operate Transfer project to construct a 135.6 km four lane expressway from Kundli Sonipat to Palwal near Faridabad.
The Haryana Government has approved the development of five cities on 50,000 hectare each side of the Western Peripheral Expressway which would cover eight districts--Sonipat, Jhajjar, Gurugram, Faridabad, Rewari, Rohtak, Mewat and Palwal. With the opening of the expressway, traffic congestion would not reduce in northern Haryana and national capital region.
The EPE and WPE combined together effectively form an Outer Ring Road around Delhi with a total length of 270 km, of which about 183 km passes through Haryana and the remaining about 87 km through Uttar Pradesh. It connects four of India’s busiest National Highways namely, NH-1 near Kundli (Sonepat), NH-10 near Bahadurgarh, NH-8 at Manesar (Gurgaon) and NH-2 near Palwal (Faridabad).
