Swaraj, Jaitley and Gadkari lay foundation stones for Dwarka Expressway, Delhi-Mumbai Expressway

NEW DELHI: Union Minister for External Affairs Sushma Swaraj, Finance and Corporate Affairs Minister SArun Jaitley and Minister for Road Transport & Highways, Shipping, Water Resources, River Development and Ganga Rejuvenation Nitin Gadkari laid the foundation stones for development of 8-lane access controlled Dwarka Expressway and Delhi-Mumbai Expressway in Delhi today.nnThe ministers also inaugurated the Jaipur Ring Road through a video link on the occasion. Minister of State for RTH, Shipping, Chemicals & Fertilizers  Mansukh Mandaviya, MoS Planning (I/C) and Chemicals and Fertilizers Rao Inderjit Singh, MoS Sports (I/C) and Information & Broadcasting Col Rajyavardhan Rathore, and Chief Minister of Haryana, Manohar Lal were also present on the occasion.nnSpeaking on the occasion, Swaraj said, the three projects are a gift for Delhi and Haryana. She said that the Delhi-Mumbai Expressway will change the future of Mewat region, and will bring it on industrial map of the country. She appreciated that over 20 lakh new trees will be planted on these new roads, and these roads have the potential of becoming tourist attraction in near future.nnJaitely said, the Delhi-Mumbai Expressway will link two most important freight centres of the country, and will boost economic activity and generate great employment opportunities.nnHe appreciated Gadkari?s efforts in developing the National Highway network in the country, and said, he has successfully brought up this sector to building of 29 kms of National Highways against a mere seven kms earlier. He informed that nearly 91 per cent of country?s villages are linked with main roads.nnGadkari said, while developing expressways and highways, full attention is being given to minimising pollution levels. He said, the Delhi-Meerut Expressway, Dhaula Kuan flyover, etc will definitely reduce traffic congestion thereby improving the air quality in the city. Delhi- Mumbai Expressway will also speed up the development and smart cities will develop along them generating vast employment opportunities for the local people.nnHe said, projects worth over 15 lakh crore are underway in the Ministry, and these are being taken up with full transparency, in a corruption-free atmosphere.nnHe said, all projects are being completed within time schedules.nnThe Delhi-Vadodara-Mumbai Expressway is conceived as a 1320 km greenfield project with an estimated cost of Rs 90,000 crore. The existing Delhi-Mumbai National Corridor (NH-8 section of the Golden Quadrilateral) is one the busiest and most critical routes of the national highways network, witnessing an average traffic of more than 80,000 PCUs per day. Considering the present traffic scenario, it was decided to develop an alternative alignment connecting Delhi with Vadodara, which on linking up with the proposed Vadodara-Mumbai Expressway, would create seamless connectivity between Delhi and Mumbai and improve the efficiency of this highly trafficked National Corridor.nnThe proposed Delhi-Vadodara-Mumbai road will result in overall reduction of about 150 km in the present distance between Delhi and Mumbai. In addition, Delhi-Vadodara expressway would also act as an expressway to Jaipur via the already developed Jaipur-Dausa NH-11. The expressway will also reduce the distance to other important economic centres of Kota, Bhopal and Indore from Delhi (through spurs of intersecting NHs being developed under Bharatmala) by about 100 km.nnThe Delhi-Vadodara Expressway is being taken up in 5 phases at a cost of Rs 45000 crore. Bids have been invited for all these phases and are at various stages of finalization. The Vadodara-Mumbai Expressway, is being constructed in three phases at a cost of Rs 45000 crore. Work has been awarded for a part of Phase I and will be done for the remaining phases this year.nnThe 29 km Dwarka Expressway (NH-248BB) being built at a cost of Rs 9,000 crore will start from Shiv Murti to terminate near Kherki Daula on NH-8. This section of NH-8 is a part of Delhi-Jaipur-Ahmedabad-Mumbai arm of Golden Quadrilateral and Delhi-Gurgaon section is presently carrying traffic of over 3 lakhs PCUs, much beyond the designed capacity of this highway, leading to severe congestion.nnKeeping this in view, Dwarka Expressway has been conceived as a bypass of Gurgaon. This Expressway stretches 18.9 Kms in Haryana and 10.1 Kms in Delhi. It is also proposed to provide western connectivity to Indira Gandhi International Airport from Dwarka side from this expressway, providing alternate connectivity to the airport for west Delhi and Haryana.nnThe expressway will also provide direct access to upcoming Exhibition-Cum-Convention Centre in Sector 25 of Dwarka.nnThe 57 km long six-lane Jaipur Ring Road has been completed at a cost of Rs 1217 crore. It connects NH-11 (Agra Road), NH-8 (Ajmer Road), NH-12 (Tonk Road), and NH-12 (Malpura Road). The project involved construction of two ROBs, a flyover, two major bridges, 20 minor bridges, 32 VUPs and 31 culverts. The project envisages considerable reduction in traffic congestion and pollution in Jaipur city.