Two major road projects approved to decongest Delhi-NCR region

"Currently bids that have been received for hiring a consultant are under evaluation and the work to prepare a detailed project report is likely to be awarded by mid-June this year," government report

To decongest Delhi and the national capital region, the construction of two mega highways has been approved in a meeting recently held between Union Transport Minister Nitin Gadkari and Chief Minister Rekha Gupta, costing around Rs 10,000 crore.

A new 17-kilometer-long highway connecting Urban Extension Road II (UER 2) to the Delhi-Dehradun expressway near Tronica City has been approved. After completion, this project will reduce traffic load on inner roads, easing pressure on National Highway-48, National Highway-44, Ring Roads and the Barapullah elevated corridor. The estimated construction cost of the project is Rs 3,300 crore.

According to officials, connecting UER 2 to the Delhi-Dehradun, which starts near Akshardham temple, will provide faster connectivity to traffic generated from Haryana and Rajasthan, which is destined to move towards Dehradun.

"Currently bids that have been received for hiring a consultant are under evaluation and the work to prepare a detailed project report is likely to be awarded by mid-June this year," according to a government document.

Another project for the construction of a 65 km long highway from Tronica City connecting to the under-construction FaridabadNoidaGhaziabad Expressway, or FNG Expressway, has been approved.

As per the plan, this highway will connect five major roadsDelhi-Dehradun Expressway, Delhi-Meerut Expressway, Noida-Greater Noida Expressway, DND-Faridabad Highway, and Yamuna Expresswayall together around NCR.

"The highway will provide connectivity to NCR towns such as Loni, Baghpat, Ghaziabad, Noida and Faridabad with North and Southwest Delhi. It will help in decongesting internal roads and city centres like the Sarai Kale Khan section and Kalindi Kunj, providing an alternative for intercity and freight traffic," the document said.

A tender has been floated for hiring a consultant to prepare a DPR for this project, the estimated cost of construction is Rs 7,500 crore.

"A total of 1.25 lakh crore work decongestion projects has been initiated by the centre in Delhi. The projects will be executed by the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) at its own cost with the support of PWD," CM Gupta had said after the high-level meeting.

The NHAI is also utilizing a large amount of inert waste recovered through biomining of legacy waste accumulated at Delhi's landfill sites. To date, approximately 10 lakh metric tons of inert material have been utilized in the construction of the UER 2 project.