To expedite the construction of Delhi-Meerut Expressway, a team of NHAI officials led by Chairman Raghav Chandra on Friday visited project sites and assured developers of all support in resolving bottlenecks for early completion of project. PM Modi in December 2015 had laid the foundation stone of the project designed to ease congestion in the national capital region and boost Western UP economy.
“National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) is fully geared up to resolve site specific issues and facilitation is being given to concessionaires for expediting the early execution of this prestigious project of the Government aiming to give relief to road users at large which will boost the economy of Western UP,” Chandra said after inspecting the sites.
Besides, taking stock of the work of 96-km long Delhi Meerut Expressway being implemented at a cost of Rs7,620 crore, NHAI Chairman also visited the construction site of Eastern Peripheral Expressway Package-III at Dasna and inspected the earthwork of 8 km.
At present, there is only one route connecting Delhi and Meerut i.e. NH-58 on which the traffic jam is very usual at several places, thus, causing a lot of inconvenience. The alignment of Delhi-Meerut Expressway starts from Sarai Kale Khan near outer ring road Delhi and will continue on existing NH 24 up to Dasna (km 28). From Dasna there will be completely a new greenfield alignment up to Meerut, NHAI said.
For early implementation of the project, it has been divided into 4 packages 14 lane Expressway/NH from Sarai Kale Khan, outer ring road, Delhi to Gazipur; 14 lane Expressway/ NH from Ghazipur; 6 lane along with 2 lane service road on each side from Dasna to Hapur and Greenfield 6 lane Expressway from Dasna to Meerut, it said.
Contract for Package I (Delhi portion) has been awarded to Welspun Delhi Meerut Expressway Pvt ltd and is being implemented on PPP-Hybrid Annuity mode. “There are bottlenecks in the smooth implementation of the project such as encroachments in Pandav Nagar/ 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,” NHAI said. However, the matter has been taken up with Government of Delhi for rehabilitation and resettlement of affected families, it said and added there is detailed utility shifting of high tension electric lines involved in the project for which a plan has been prepared with close coordination with utility owning agencies such as BSES, DTl, IGl, PNG, MTNl, DJB, etc.