In a move to boost the city’s transport infrastructure and to provide an alternate route to commuters, the Delhi Government is planning to construct a 20-kilometre-long elevated road over the Munak Canal, connecting Inderlok to Bawana in northwest Delhi. This elevated corridor will benefit 18 assembly constituencies two parliamentary constituencies, and 35 municipal wards. The estimated cost of the project is around Rs 3,000 crore and construction is expected to take three years from the time work is awarded.
The Munak Canal, a 102-kilometre aqueduct stretching from Haryana to Delhi, a key water supply channel running through Haryana and Delhi, was originally built to reduce water loss in the Western Yamuna Canal and ensure efficient water transport to the capital. Now, it is being eyed as the base for a crucial elevated corridor aimed at decongesting roads and improving travel time across the region.
The project, which is expected to be completed in at least three years, was discussed on Thursday in a high-level meeting chaired by Delhi Chief Minister Rekha Gupta and Public Works Department (PWD) Minister Parvesh Verma, and attended by senior
officials from the PWD department as well as representatives from the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI), PWD, Forest Department, and other departments.
“This elevated corridor will benefit 18 assembly constituencies, two parliamentary constituencies and 35 municipal wards. It will significantly improve transportation for a large population,” Verma said.
The project will be executed by the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI), while the PWD will oversee funding, land clearance and local coordination.
According to officials, a Detailed Project Report (DPR) is being prepared and is expected to be completed within the next three months. Additionally, the Delhi Government has sought a no-objection certificate from the Haryana to proceed, as the canal partially falls within Haryana’s jurisdiction.
The canal remains critically important to Delhi, as it supplies water to the Haiderpur Water Treatment Plant, which has a capacity of approximately 200 MGD (Million Gallons per Day).
At the meeting, the Chief Minister said the Delhi Government is ready to take over maintenance of Munak Canal that supplies fresh water to the national capital and will soon take up the issue with her Haryana counterpart Nayab Singh Saini.
The move will help strengthen the canal and ensure uninterrupted water flow to Delhi, she said in a statement.
The Delhi Government also aims to maintain the surrounding areas of the canal to support effective organisation of religious and cultural events, the statement said. Calling the Munak Canal a”lifeline of Delhi”, Gupta said that she would soon discuss the matter with Saini.
The Chief Minister acknowledged that the current maintenance of the canal is inadequate. The canal flows openly through Delhi, and there is no effective mechanism in place to ensure the security of the canal or its water. In several areas under Delhi’s jurisdiction, the canal’s banks are unpaved, leading to frequent contamination of the water. The canal lining (pitching) has also broken down in several places due to lack of maintenance. These factors contribute to pollution and hinder the natural flow of the canal, even though the treated water from it quenches the thirst of nearly 2 million residents of Delhi.
The Delhi Government is also working on the Najafgarh drain, transforming it into a 30 MW canal- top solar power corridor.Additionally, the Delhi Government has prepared a Rs 950-crore plan for reconstructing 415 kilometres of dilapidated roads in the city, and the proposal has been submitted to the central Government under the Central Road Fund (CRF). The plan includes major roads such as Outer Ring Road, Mathura Road, Najafgarh Road, and Vikas Marg.
The elevated road will also connect to Urban Extension Road-II (UER-II), further strengthening Delhi’s outer ring road network and easing access to the northern and western parts of the city.
The project was discussed in a high-level meeting in June, chaired by Union Transport Minister Nitin Gadkari and attended by Delhi Chief Minister Rekha Gupta.
Meanwhile, the NHAI is planning a major eastern extension of the Urban Extension Road-II (UER-II), widely known as Delhi’s third Ring Road, to ease pressure on key arterial roads such as the Ring Road, Outer Ring Road, Kalindi Kunj, and Sarai Kale Khan by routing traffic through northeast Delhi into Ghaziabad and ultimately Noida. The new six-lane highway will begin at Alipur in North Delhi-currently the northern endpoint of UER-II-and run through Tronica City in Ghaziabad, connecting to the Delhi-Dehradun Expressway near Mandaula. From there, it will wind through Ghitora and Farukhnagar, link up with the Delhi-Meerut Expressway, and end along the Noida-Greater Noida Expressway.