A major effort to decongest roads of Delhi and the neighbouring cities of Ghaziabad and Gurgaon is in the offing.
While the Centre on Wednesday put on the fast-track the much-delayed Eastern and Western Peripheral Expressways connecting Haryana and Uttar Pradesh, the Ghaziabad Development Authority (GDA) too announced a 10-km long six lane elevated road from UP border to Raj Nagar Extension, a newly developed township of the city along Hindon canal. The `917-crore project will reduce the travel time from UP Gate to Raj Nagar to merely eight minutes.
In another development, the Union Urban Development Ministry has asked the Delhi Development Authority (DDA) to take up construction of elevated or new roads, upgradation and extension of existing corridors and provide seamless connectivity with other NCR cities without passing through inner areas of Delhi.
This is aimed at decongesting five critical roads viz, Urban Extension Road-II connecting North Delhi with airport/Gurgaon without requiring passing through congested areas of Central and South Delhi like Connaught Place, Rao Tularam Marg, etc.
The other critical roads include Extension of Chhattarpur and Mandi Road connecting Gurgaon, Extension of Barapullah Phase-III from East Delhi to Airport, Dwarka Expressway and new connections from Noida and Faridabad.
In a review meeting on Wednesday, UD Minister Venkaiah Naidu asked DDA to engage a consultant of international repute to prepare feasibility reports on these road projects.
Meanwhile, Union Transport Minister Nitin Gadkari asked the National Highway Authority of India (NHAI) to invite bids for the peripheral expressway project within three weeks after making certain changes in the design and technology of the expressways.
However, for this, the Government of Haryana will have to suspend the contract with the DS Construction and assign the job to the NHAI. The DS Constructions had earlier been awarded the contract for the project that was conceived in the year 2006.
The decision was taken during a meeting of all seven MPs from Delhi with Gadkari on Wednesday. later, New Delhi MP Meenakshi lekhi said the new deadline of two years has been set for completion of the project.
“Earlier it was planned to construct bituminous road but now it has been decided to construct concrete road. Further, four stations will be constructed for halting of trucks. The NHAI has been asked to start the work within a month,” lekhi said.
“As per the contract, the project has to be completed in three years but the Minister (Gadkari) has asked to complete the same in two years. The contractor will be given incentives if the work is completed in time but a hefty penalty will be imposed if the deadline is missed,” the BJP leader said.
The Transport Minister has also offered assistance in reducing the cost of the project. “The Shipping Ministry of the Government will be convinced to give the sand excavated from dredging of Yamuna for free to the contractor. The sand can be used to build the road and thus reducing the cost of construction,” lekhi said as quoting Nitin Gadkari.
The Eastern and Western Peripheral Expressways, running through Haryana and Uttar Pradesh, aim to decongest Delhi roads. The two expressways - each about 135 km long — were planned in 2006 following a Supreme Court order to form a ring road outside Delhi for channeling non-Delhi bound traffic bypassing the national capital and thus decongesting the city. While the Eastern Peripheral Expressway envisages providing signal-free connectivity between Ghaziabad, Faridabad, Gautam Budh Nagar (Greater Noida) and Palwal, the Western Expressway connects Kundli to Palwal via Manesar in Haryana.
Meanwhile, GDA vice-chairman Santosh Yadav said the elevated road will be completed within three years. “Out of 10.3 km stretch, 9.3 kilometres will be an elevated road while one km would be at the surface level at both ends of the road. The GDA has applied for the loan of Rs 700 crore from NCR planning board while the remaining Rs 217 crore will be arranged through own resources,” he said.
The elevated road would have two interchanges-one at Kinawani to facilitate commuters from Vasundhara in the north and Indirapuram in the west. The second interchange would be at GT road crossing Mohan Nagar link. This would facilitate commuters from old Delhi and the Ghaziabad city at the Hindon Bridge on GT Road. There will be junction before entering in to Raj Nagar Extension where a round about would be constructed for the smooth signal free traffic movement.