After much delay, the Eastern and Western Peripheral Peripheral Expressway projects, initiated almost 11 years ago to ease congestion as well as air pollution in the national Capital, have started seeing the light of day. Union Minister for Road Transport and Highways Nitin Gadkari on Tuesday threw open to the public the 52-kilometre Manesar-Palwal section of the 135-kilometre the Kundli-Manesar-Palwal (KMP) Expressway, also known as Western Peripheral Expressway.
Though there will be no significant impact on Delhi’s traffic due to opening of the 52-kilometre stretch, once both the Eastern and Western Peripheral Expressways are completed, the number of heavy vehicles passing through Delhi is expected to be cut by half with proportional reduction in the pollution levels.
Speaking on the occasion, Gadkari promised to complete that Eastern and Western Peripheral Expressways within 400 days. Once both the expressways are operational, apart from reducing traffic congestion and air pollution levels in Delhi, farmers, traders and the people of the region as a whole will benefit due to better connectivity, he said.
While the project had been languishing for several years, the Centre and the Haryana Government resolved the issues plaguing it and the 52.33 km long section of the expressway has been completed in a record time of eleven months, claimed Haryana Chief Minister Manohar lal Khattar.
Gadkari reiterated his Government’s commitment to bringing in policies aimed at improving the condition of villages, poor people, farmers and labourers. He said that a strong infrastructure plays a major role in fostering development. “Road building activity has caught speed, and today we are building about 20 km of roads per day as against 2 km per day during the UPA Government,” he said.
Gadkari further said that the Government is constructing 1.5-lakh kilometre of highways in a year. “When the Modi Government came to power, we decided to give topmost priority to infrastructure. When I became the Minister for Road Transport and Highways, there were merely 96,000 kilometres of highways. That makes it only 2 per cent of the total road network in the country which was used by around 40 per cent of total traffic. There were also used to be around 5 lakh road accidents every year. But soon, we will have over two lakh kilometres of highways and number of accidents brought to half,” he added.
The Manesar-Palwal section of the Expressway has been built at a cost of
Rs 457.81 crore. It is an access controlled, six-lane, divided road with 1.5 metre wide paved shoulder on each side.
It intersects with Delhi-Jaipur NH8 near Manesar, Palwal-Sohna-Rewari NH 919, Sohna-Nuh-Alwar Road NH 248A and finally joins NH2 near Palwal.
The road will provide uninterrupted high-speed link for traffic, especially commercial traffic from Haryana to its neighbouring States. It will also decongest road traffic through Delhi by allowing bypass of traffic not destined for Delhi. The road also has several underpasses, cattle crossing underpasses, agricultural vehicle underpasses bridges and pedestrian crossing underpasses.
The Eastern Peripheral Expressway will connect Kundli, Ghaziabad and Palwal.
The Haryana Chief Minister said that the State, which had just four National Highways for so many years, has got nine new National Highways in the last one and a half years. Kundli-Palwal section of the Western Peripheral Expressway will be completed within this year, he added.
Speaking on the occasion Minister of State for Social Justice and Empowerment Krishna Pal Gurjar commended the Haryana Government on having speedily completed a project that was languishing for so long. He said that the Government at the Centre was committed to building sound infrastructure in the country.
Once the KMP Expressway becomes operational, vehicles coming from northern India on National Highway-1 and going towards Rajasthan and Gujarat can get on the expressway and take the National Highway-8 at Manesar. Similarly, those driving towards central and southern India can take National Highway-2 at Palwal.
Forming a ring around the NCR area, the Eastern and the Western Peripheral Expressways were conceived to ensure that non-destined commercial vehicles, which are estimated to be more than 80,000 now, do not enter the city limits of Delhi.