Dwarka Expressway
– Photo: Amar Ujala
Expansion
India’s first elevated urban expressway, Dwarka Expressway may soon open for traffic. According to National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) officials, the Gurgaon segment of the expressway is expected to be opened by the first week of March. Union Minister Nitin Gadkari had recently said that Prime Minister Narendra Modi may inaugurate the Dwarka Expressway by next month.
Gadkari had recently said that the construction work of Dwarka Expressway is nearing completion. Local officials said that the final touches are being given to this expressway, which will ease the traffic flow between Delhi and Gurgaon, in the coming days. Minor works like installing street lights, marking lanes on the road are being done, which is expected to be completed in a few weeks. However, the Delhi segment may take more time to complete.
Union Minister Nitin Gadkari recently surveyed the construction work on Dwarka Expressway. He said that about 85 percent of the work has been completed. Gadkari said, “We have requested the Prime Minister to inaugurate the completed packages of UER-II and Dwarka Expressway. I hope that in the next 10-12 days we will get his time and we will inaugurate these roads.”
Dwarka Expressway, also known as Northern Peripheral Road, is a 29 kilometer long 16-lane expressway. It connects Dwarka in Delhi to Gurgaon in Haryana. It starts from Shiv-Murti on NH-8 or Delhi-Gurgaon Expressway and ends near Kherki Daula Toll Plaza via Dwarka Sector 21, Gurgaon Border and Basai. About 19 kilometers of the expressway falls in Haryana. Whereas the remaining 10 km stretch is in Delhi. Dwarka Expressway will also have the longest and widest urban road tunnel of 3.6 kilometers long and 8 lanes wide.
The new expressway is expected to provide passengers an alternative route to reach Indira Gandhi International Airport. It will also help in reducing the traffic on National Highway 8 by about 50 percent.
Dwarka Expressway is a mega structure with unique features. Developed at a cost of Rs 9,000 crore, it used about 2.07 lakh metric tonnes of steel, which is 30 times more than that used to build the iconic Eiffel Tower. The expressway also used about 2 million cubic meters of concrete, which is 6 times more than the amount of concrete used to build the world’s tallest building, Burj Khalifa.
