Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated the first phase of the Delhi-Meerut Expressway in New Delhi on Sunday, ANI reported. The 8.36-km road is the first national highway with 14 lanes, including a six-lane expressway and eight service lanes from Nizamuddin Bridge in Delhi to the border with Uttar Pradesh.
The entire project covers 82 km, and is likely to cost Rs 4,975.17 crore, the government said. The first phase was built in 18 months for Rs 841.5 crore.
Modi will later travel to Baghpat to inaugurate the Eastern Peripheral Expressway. The six-lane highway connecting Kundli to Palwal in Haryana via Ghaziabad in Uttar Pradesh is likely to decongest Delhi by diverting around two lakh vehicles.
Kundli is located in Haryana to the north of the Capital, and Palwal in the south. The other half of the project, the Western Peripheral Expressway, will connect Kundli to Palwal via Manesar, to the west of Delhi.
— Delhi Traffic Police (@dtptraffic) May 27, 2018
Built at a cost of Rs 11,000 crore, the Eastern Peripheral Expressway has solar power lighting across its entire length, the government said. The 135-km expressway is a part of the 271-km Ring Road.
The road will have auto-challans for over-speeding as cameras will capture speeds of vehicles, PTI reported. It will also have provisions of tolling only for the distance travelled, and “weigh-in-motion” equipment will help stop entry of over-loaded vehicles.
The expressway was initially supposed to be inaugurated by April 20. However, the Prime Minister’s Office cancelled the inauguration because of Modi’s “prior commitments”. On May 10, the Supreme Court asked the National Highway Authority of India to inaugurate the Eastern Peripheral Expressway on or before May 31. “[We] can’t wait indefinitely for the prime minister [to inaugurate it],” the court had said.
“Eastern Expressway will be thrown open from June 1 even if the PM can’t inaugurate it by then,” the Supreme Court said. “[It] won’t be in public interest to delay it further.”
