Plans for 16-lane road to decongest Delhi traffic

NEW DELHI: Plans are on the anvil for a Rs 5,000 crore 16-lane road connecting Delhi with Ghaziabad and Noida on the outskirts in a major bid to ease traffic congestion in the capital.

A plan is also in the works to build a Rs 6,000 crore Eastern Peripheral Expressway to provide signal-free connectivity between the national capital and neighbouring towns, says Union Minister Nitin Gadkari.

The work on the project for widening of NH-24 up to Dasna in Uttar Pradesh (UP) to 16-lanes as part of the Delhi-Meerut Expressway package, will begin in three months.

"We are making a 16-lane highway on NH 24 from near ITO till Dasna. This will also ease traffic jams in Delhi and it will pass through the Akshardham temple. The work will start on this project in 3 months," Road Transport, Highways and Shipping Minister Gadkari told PTI in an interview.

The cost of the project could be in the range of Rs 4,000 to Rs 5,000 crore, he added.

The widening of the road will start from near the Yamuna Bridge on NH 24. The carriage way will go up to Dasna via UP-Delhi border and eventually till Meerut, an official said.

The 16-lane project would include 6-lanes as expressway, which means it will be an access-controlled highway.

On the Eastern Peripheral Expressway, the Minister said: "File has gone from the Finance Ministry to the Cabinet and I guess in a months time we will start work on the project (The Eastern Bypass Project). This will ease traffic jams in the city."

He further said: "I met the Delhi Minister, who said that the state government cannot fund the project. So I said we will fund it....Delhi government had to give land for the project but later they said they would not be able to provide the land for the same."

The project is likely to be completed by July 2018, a source said.

Last year MPs from Delhi had met Gadkari demanding steps to decongest Delhi's Ring roads from heavy vehicles entering from Haryana and Uttar Pradesh.

The Minister had assured them that both Eastern Peripheral Expressway and Western Peripheral Expressway would be completed in three years.

The two expressways -- each about 135 km long -- were planned in 2006 following a Supreme Court order to form a ring road outside Delhi for channelling non-Delhi bound traffic bypassing the national capital.

Eastern Peripheral Expressway envisages to provide signal-free connectivity between Ghaziabad, Faridabad, Gautam Budh Nagar (Greater Noida) and Palwal while the Western Expressway connects Kundli to Palwal via Manesar in Haryana.