Delhi-Mumbai Expressway likely in a year, big thrust on green highways: Gadkari
The much-awaited Delhi-Mumbai Expressway is likely to be completed in a year's time and the Delhi-Meerut Expressway will be inaugurated in the next two months. These were some of the key announcements made by Road Transport and Highways Minister Nitin Gadkari during a virtual event organized by PHD Chamber of Commerce in New Delhi recently.
Speaking at the event, Gadkari highlighted the massive thrust on green highway projects and outlined the numerous benefits expected from these. "We are spending ₹7 lakh crore on building green express highways. These...will reduce air pollution, traffic jam and minimise logistics and transportation cost," the union minister informed, adding that ₹60 thousand crore is being spent on projects which will also help curb the pollution menace in the national capital. Of this, the 30-kilometer long Dwarka-Express Highway project is touted as an 'engineering marvel.'
The Delhi-Saharanpur-Dehradun project is also crucial and the minister promised that it would bring down travel time between Delhi and the capital city of Uttarakhand to just two hours. Projects to connect Delhi with Chandigarh and Delhi with Haridwar in two hours by car are also underway.
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It is the Delhi-Mumbai Expressway though that is perhaps the most ambitious road project in recent times. It is expected to bring down road travel time significantly between the two major cities in the country. It is estimated that a journey between the two metropolises would come down to about 12 hours once the expressway is made operational. It will have eight lanes in phase one and feature 12 lanes as part of phase two expansion plans. "Sixty per cent of this 1,300 km project has been completed and we are trying to complete it within one year," he said.
Gadkari also chose to underline how the focus is on ensuring state-of-the-art technique with advanced engineering is used in construction processes. This is not only to ensure top-notch quality but with the added aim of reducing green house emissions.
(With inputs from PTI)
