32km road will connect east Delhi with west UP

ELEVATED ROAD Tender for the project to be floated this month, say officials

GHAZIABAD: The National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) is planning a 32-km-long six-lane road to connect Akshardham in east Delhi with Mavi Kalan in Baghpat in order to provide seamless travel between Delhi and western Uttar Pradesh.

The idea behind the project is to connect commuters to three major routes of NH-9 (erstwhile NH-24), Eastern Peripheral Expressway and Delhi-saharanpur Road.

NHAI officials familiar with the development said tenders for the project will be floated later in January as the detailed project report has already been completed. The tenders are expected to be awarded in March. The project — connecting Akshardham, Geeta Colony, Gandhi Nagar, Lohe ka pul (Gandhi Nagar), Khajuri Khaas and will move to Ghaziabad in Loni — is pegged to cost ₹1,800 crore.

“The road will be made alongside the Delhi-saharanpur highway and end near Mavi Kalan. The four-laning of the Delhi-saharanpur highway is already in progress under two packages — Mavi Kalan to Shamli and Shamli to Saharanpur. The 32-km project will have 14.7km in Delhi and 17.5km in UP. A total of 6km of the Delhi stretch will be elevated, while 12.5km in the UP stretch will be elevated,” said RP Singh, project director (NHAI).

The Mavi Kalan intersection in Baghpat has an interchange for the Eastern Peripheral Expressway. The Delhi-saharanpur Road was earlier a state highway, but has now been taken up by the NHAI, officials said.

“The idea behind the project is to provide seamless travel to commuters between Delhi and western UP. Earlier the project was taken up by UP State Highways Authority (UPSHA) and was sup- posed to start from Wazirabad. Since the work could not commence, it is now taken up by NHAI. The project is estimated to be completed in two-and-a-half years and will have five entry/ exit points which are being decided and a single toll in Loni,” Singh, added.

Officials said that since the UPSHA could not initiate the project, the NHAI took over and realigned the road which will now start from Akshardham instead of Wazirabad. In UP, it will be constructed adjacent to an embankment in Loni and then move to Delhi-saharanpur Road in Loni and Baghpat.

Besides this project, the NHAI is also working on the Delhimeerut Expressway which will connect commuters to Delhi.

The first phase of the project in Delhi is already operational while three phases are under progress.