PM lays foundation stone for 3 highway projects at Sonepat in Haryana

Says Centre working towards removing bottlenecks and simplifying procedures to speed up implementation of infrastructure projects

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The Prime minister, Narendra Modi today laid the foundation stone of 341 km long three highway projects costing Rs 13,802 crore at Sonipat in Haryana.

These include the Western Peripheral expressway (136 kms) worth Rs 4,115 crore, a project which will be six-laned instead of earlier proposed four-laned; Eastern Peripheral expressway (135 kms) at a cost of Rs 7,558 crore and eight-laning of highway section from Mukarba Chowk in Delhi to Panipat in Haryana (70 kms) worth Rs 2,129 crore.

The Prime Minister said the Union government is working towards removing bottlenecks and simplifying procedures to speed up implementation of infrastructure projects. He mentioned the PRAGATI interactions with various Ministries and States that he chairs every month, to resolve issues in pending projects.

The Prime Minister reiterated his vision of connecting 18000 unconnected villages with power supply within 1000 days, and ensuring 24x7 power supply to all parts of the country by 2022.

It may be recalled here that the 136 kms long Kundli-Manesar-Palwal (KMP) Expressway, also known as Western Peripheral Expressway, project will provide high-speed link to northern Haryana with its southern districts like Gurgaon, Faridabad and Palwal.

The project spanning five districts of Sonipat, Jhajjar, Gurgaon, Mewat and Palwal would be completed at a total cost of Rs 4,000 crore and would help in de-congestion of National Capital Territory (NCT) of Delhi as the traffic from the northern parts of the Country destined to other regions would not need to pass through this area, thus reducing pollution tremendously.

The work of KMP Expressway was awarded in January, 2006 and was scheduled to be completed by July, 2009. However, the previous agency did not complete the work and his contract was terminated on March 19, 2015.

While the 135-km long Eastern Peripheral Expressway (EPE) will pass through Haryana and Uttar Pradesh. The highway, which had been proposed for 12 long years, is expected to clear traffic and pollution problems in Haryana, and parts of Delhi and UP.