Route patrol at every 20 km to prevent theft on Eastern Peripheral Expressway

Route patrol by police has been deployed at every 20 km besides initiating CCTV camera installation to check thefts on the Eastern Peripheral Expressway (EPE), Parliament was informed today.

The government last week had said that instances of theft of street lamps, among other items, were taking place at the 135-km long EPE, billed as the country's first smart and green highway.

"Route patrol has been deployed at every 20 km length to safeguard such type of thefts," Minister of State for Road, Transport and Highways, Mansukh L Mandaviya told Rajya Sabha in a written reply.

He was replying to a question whether the people have stolen newly installed solar panels, batteries, iron and underpass lights worth millions of rupees.

The minister said apart from patrol, the work for installation of CCTV cameras has been initiated.

"Consultation have been held with district administration of Palwal, Ghaziabad, Gautam Budh Nagar, Faridabad, Baghpat and Sonepat and it has been requested to take necessary steps to mitigate such untoward incidents including theft and increase in measures like surveillance and police patrol," he said.

The EPE is also the country's first highway to be lit by solar power and there are eight solar power plants on this Expressway, with a capacity of 4000 KW (4 megawatt) for lighting of the underpasses and running solar pumps for watering plants.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on May 27 had inaugurated the Eastern Peripheral Expressway (EPE), built at a cost of about Rs 11,000 crore.

The prime minister on the same day had launched the first phase of the Delhi-Meerut Expressway built at a cost of Rs 842 crore.

There have been reports of theft of solar lights etc on both the expressways.