Union Minister of Road Transport and Highways, Shipping, Water Resources, River Development and Ganga Rejuvenation Nitin Gadkari has announced development of a new highway alignment between Delhi and Mumbai. A sum of one lakh crore rupees will be spent on this expressway. The Minister also disclosed plans for a Chambal Expressway which would be connected to this Delhi-Mumbai Expressway, and is likely to benefit states like Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan, where the backward areas will also shine like Gurugram.
Addressing a media event in New Delhi on Monday, Nitin Gadkari outlined major initiatives of his ministry for de-congestion of Delhi NCR. A total of ten projects are underway costing 35,600 crore rupees. He said, about forty thousand commercial vehicles enter Delhi on a daily basis, which cause increased pollution and congestion in the city state. An ambitious scheme of developing Eastern and Western Peripheral Expressways around Delhi was taken up, and the Eastern Peripheral Expressway will be inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on the 29th of this month. Similarly, to ease traffic in East Delhi, Delhi-Meerut Expressway was envisaged, and its Delhi-Dasna portion will also be inaugurated by PM on 29thApril by a road show.
Gadkari informed that work on signal free corridor from Dhaula Kuan to Airport has been awarded at a cost of 260 crore rupees. He said, eight-lane fully access-controlled Dwarka Expressway is being developed in four packages. While three packages have already been awarded, the work on the Expressway is likely to start in a month’s time. Total investment on the project is 9500 crore rupees. Additionally, under improvement of Mahipalpur at Rangpuri, a bypass is being envisaged to connect Dwarka/ NH8. Regarding development of major junctions on NH8 in Gurugram like the flyover/ underpass at IFFCO Chowk, Signature Tower intersection, Rajiv Chowk and Hero Honda Chowk, the Minister informed that the work, costing Rs 1000 crore, has been substantially completed.
Related news in Times of India says that the Delhi-Mumbai Expressway will reduce the existing distance of 1450 kms to about 1250 kms. At present the time taken is around 24 hours which will come down to 12 hours. The Expressway will be completed in 3 years. (https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/delhi/new-gurugram-mumbai-e-way-to-be-ready-in-three-years-nitin-gadkari/articleshow/63791549.cms)
