The National Highway Authority of India (NHAI) and the Minister for Road, Transport and Highways on Thursday spoke in two voices on the inauguration of the Eastern Peripheral Expressway (EPE), even as the Supreme Court said that it will throw open the highways to public from June 1 if it was till then not formally inaugurated by the Prime Minister as proposed by the NHAI.
With the 135-kilometre long super highway connecting Kundli to Palwal via Ghaziabad and Greater Noida expected to substantially reduce the traffic load of Delhi, the Bench of Justices Madan B lokur and Deepak Gupta asked the NHAI to report the status of the project. On April 18 when the matter was last heard, the authority informed the court that the project will be inaugurated on April 29.
The NHAI informed the Bench that the Prime Minister is expected to inaugurate the project on May 29. The amicus curiae and advocate Aparajta Singh who surveyed the project informed that the expressway is ready for inauguration.
The Bench wondered why the project was held up for want of inauguration, suggesting that even a law officer appearing for the Centre was equipped to inaugurate. Giving time till May 31 to the NHAI for completing inauguration, the Bench directed, “NHAI must ensure that inauguration takes place on or before May 31 or else traffic will be thrown open to public from June 1.”
Soon after this, Union Minister for Road, Transport and Highways Nitin Gadkari sang a different tune and said that that the delay was on account of the project being incomplete. He said as and when it is complete, the Prime Minister will inaugurate it.
He was quoted by ANI as saying, “The Eastern Peripheral Expressway is still under construction. It will be completed soon. We will take a date from the Prime Minister for its inauguration and will immediately open it. He (PM Narendra Modi) has no connection with the delay in the opening of the expressway. We were left with little construction work and that is why we shifted the date.”
Earlier, the EPE missed the deadline of January 26 this year and was slated for completion by March 31. The EPE alone is expected to cut Delhi’s traffic burden by about two lakh vehicles.
The court also took stock of the Western Peripheral Expressway (WPE) connecting Kundli with Palwal via Manesar. This project is still under construction by Essel Infraprojects and the nodal agency for making funds available is the Haryana State Industrial and Infrastructure Development Corporation (HSIIDC). The counsel appearing for HSIIDC informed the court that though the deadline set for the project will expire in February 2019, the concessionaire has agreed to deliver completion by June 30 this year. The Bench ordered the WPE to also be inaugurated by July 1.
The WPE is being built at a total project cost of Rs 1,863 crore. The Manesar-Palwal section of WPE has already commenced and by June 2018, the completion of the Kundli-Manesar section is expected to take off a chunk of Delhi-bound commercial traffic, thereby easing congestion and pollution level in the city.