The under-construction Meerut Expressway has been rechristened as National Highway-9, making it the first NH of the country to run alongside the existing NH-24 that connects the national Capital with lucknow.
The Delhi stretch of the Meerut Expressway along with the much-delayed Eastern Peripheral Expressway are all set for inauguration as Road Transport Minister Nitin Gadkari on Monday apprised Prime Minister Narendra Modi of the progress of both the projects and sought his time to throw both the stretches open for public use.
Both the projects have missed deadlines. In the wake of the Phase I of Meerut Expressway failing to get commissioned on Republic Day this year, Gadkari had urged all the stakeholders to pull up their socks. Upset with the delay, Gadkari had summoned officials of the central road making agency NHAI, concessionaires, Delhi Metro and the Delhi Police last week.
The 8.7-km-stretch of the first phase of NH9 project involves a vertical garden being developed on the Yamuna Bridge, solar system lighting, and drip irrigation for watering plants besides a new 4+4-lane bridge across Yamuna. The entry to the expressway will be near the Commonwealth Games (CWG) village, while the exit will be at Akshardham and Ghazipur.
The 135-km-long Eastern Peripheral Expressway which too would be commissioned by the PM on the same day, envisages signal-free connectivity between Ghaziabad, Faridabad, Gautam Budh Nagar (Greater Noida) and Palwal. The Rs 11,000-crore project is India's first smart, green, and access-controlled six-lane expressway. This expressway will divert around two lakh vehicles passing through the national capital, cutting out pollution.
The project has an intelligent Highway Traffic Management system (HTMS), and video incident detection system (VIDS), and a closed tolling system, which collects tolls based on the distance travelled, and not the entire length.
Gadkari had earlier announced that Eastern Peripheral Expressway and the Phase-I of Meerut Expressway within the territorial jurisdiction of Delhi on National Highway (NH) 24 (between Nizamuddin and Ghazipur) would be inaugurated by Prime Minister on Republic Day.
The Prime Minister had laid the foundation stone of the Rs 7,566-crore Meerut expressway on December 31, 2015, and thereafter, he has been personally monitoring the project. The phase-II of the project involves a six-lane expressway and eight-laning from Delhi/UP Border to Dasna for 19.28km, while Phase-III will involve six-laning of NH-24 for 22.27km from Dasna to Hapur. Phase-IV will be for 31.70km of new greenfield alignment from Dasna to Meerut.
"NH 9 will now be a major East-West running highway in India starting at Fazilka, the highway ends at Pithoragarh in Uttarakhand while passing through the states of Punjab, Haryana, Delhi, Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand. After renumbering of all national highways by NHAI the current NH 9 was formed by merging five differently numbered NH including Old NH 10 (Fazilka-Delhi section), Old NH 24 (Delhi-Rampur section), Old NH 87 (Rampur-Rudrapur section), Old NH 74 (Rudrapur-Sitarganj-Khatima section) and Old NH 125 (Tanakpur-Pithoragarh section)," said a senior Road Ministry official adding this will be the first where two NHs will run alongside destined for two locations.