Union Minister for Road Transport & Highways, Shipping and Water Resources, River Development and Ganga Rejuvenation Nitin Gadkari laid the foundation stone for yet another National Highways project to decongest Delhi and the NCR region today.The proposed 59 km long, six-lane, access-controlled highway will connect the Ring Road-DND junction to the interchange of Delhi-Mumbai Expressway at KMP, passing through Kalindi bypass and Faridabad-Ballabhgarh bypass. It will bring down the traffic congestion that this area faces, and will also help to bring down pollution levels. The cost of this project is estimated at Rs 3580 crore.Addressing a public gathering on the occasion, Shri Gadkari assured that work on this highway will begin within two months and the entire project will be completed in two years’ time. He thanked the state governments of UP, Haryana and Delhi for their cooperation in the project. Underlining the prospective development of the region, Shri Gadkari called upon Haryana to consider developing new townships of Faridabad and Gurugram on the lines of Navi Mumbai. Reiterating the government’s commitment for developing the capital city on international standards, providing world class transport amenities and reducing the high levels of pollution, Shri Gadkari said that highways projects worth over Rs 5000 crore are underway to decongest NCR Delhi. Minister of State for Planning (I/C) and Chemical and Fertilizers, Rao Indrajit Singh said, roads are key to economic development of any country. He said, the national highways projects that the government has implemented over these last five years will go a long way in bringing prosperity to the country.
Minister of State for Social Justice and Empowerment Krishna Pal Gurjar equated the work of the Ministry of Road Transport & Highways with that of the Bullet Train, as highways construction work has gone up from 10 kms to over 30 kms per day.The access-controlled highway project will have 3+3 lane service roads on either sides for about 29 km, 7.350 km of elevated section with two level crossings at four locations of Metro line, 18 new underpasses, and nine interchanges with improved junctions. The project will decongest Delhi with reduction of traffic congestion in Ashram-Badarpur-Faridabad-Ballabhgarh region. This is expected to result in reduction of vehicular pollution.This project would be in addition to the nine other progects being implemented for decongesting NCR Delhi. These include the 3 km signal free corridor from Dhaula – Kuan to Airport at a cost of Rs 280 Crore, which is about 40 % completed; the 22 km, 6-lane elevated corridor on Gurugram-Sohna Road costing Rs 2000 Crore on which work has started; 8-lane Delhi-Panipat highway from Mukarba Chowk to Panipat on NH-1 being constructed at a cost of Rs 2300 and nearly 48 % done; the 29 km, 8 lane access controlled Dwarka Expressway costing about Rs 9500 crore on which work has started; package II, III and IV of Delhi-Meerut Expressway costing Rs 5900 Crore, where package II is 36 % done, package III in 76% done and package IV is 32 % done; 4 laning of 124 km Khekra – EPE junction to Shamli-Saharanpur (NH-709 B) at a cost of about Rs 1200 Crore; Rangpuri Bypass to connect Dwarka/NH-08 with Vasant Kunj-Nelson Mandela Road at a cost of Rs 1000 Crore, which is in DPR stage; 75 km Urban Extension Road (UER-2) third Ring Road for Delhi under Bharatmala to be developed at a cost of Rs 4000 Crore which is in DPR stage and the 31.3 km, 6-lane access controlled corridor from Akshardham NH24 Junction to EPE Junction on Baghpat Road at a cost of about Rs 2600 Crore.