Eastern Peripheral and part of Delhi-Meerut E’ways likely to be inaugurated on May 26th by PM Modi

- GF10000158647

The much awaited Eastern Peripheral Expressway (EPE), envisioned to decongest national capital, is likely to be inaugurated on May 26, the day Modi government completes four years in power, Moneycontrol has learnt.

A senior official from National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) said that the 135-kilometer expressway shall be inaugurated by the prime minister on NDA government’s fourth anniversary.

“The main reason to push the inauguration ahead was this,” he said on condition of anonymity.

EPE connects Kundli to Palwal in Haryana via Ghaziabad in Uttar Pradesh and has interchanges at various industrial areas like Bhaghpat, Meerut et cetera. The foundation stone for the project was laid with an intent to provide a breather to Delhi from commercial freight that was not destined for the city.

Also read: Transporters cheer Eastern Peripheral E’way but stay divided over higher toll charges

Union Minister for road transport and highways, Nitin Gadkari, has claimed that air pollution levels would reduce to half once the expressway becomes operational. The Rs 11,000 crore e’way was earlier scheduled to be inaugurated on April 29th but was rescheduled at the last minute.

Sources told Moneycontrol that the date was pushed ahead as some construction work was yet to be completed on phase-I of Delhi-Meerut expressway, which was to be inaugurated by the PM on the same day.

It is also being speculated that incomplete civil construction on EPE could also be the reason why the inauguration was delayed.

“Apart from the anniversary issue, some work was yet to be done,” another official said.

A drive on the expressway showed that construction work on about one km stretch was pending till 8 days before the scheduled inauguration. There were so signs of wayside amenities along the route as well.

Gadkari had said that EPE would have six wayside amenities (two near Bhaghpat interchange and four near Noida) providing services like rest rooms, food court, fuel station et cetera.

Also read: Eastern Peripheral E’way to have 25 percent higher toll charges to provide better facilities to commuters

A senior official said that wayside amenities would find their place at the time of inauguration but fuel stations along the route would be unavailable for the next four-five months.

“Fuel stations won’t be there for the next couple of months… We will ask oil companies to set up transient facilities for the time being but proper stations shall take time,” he said.

Apart from this, work on toll plaza was also incomplete a week before the scheduled inauguration. NHAI has claimed that a digital art gallery is being built at the toll plaza to show engineering work of the officers, especially to attract engineering students.

EPE will circumvent the national capital barring entry of approximately 52,000 trucks in the city. Once completed, it will be first solar-powered expressway coupled with intelligent traffic management techniques like over speed checking devices, weigh-in-motion sensors and closed circuit television cameras among other facilities. It also has miniatures of 36 monuments including India Gate, Qutub Minar, Gateway of India, Ashoka Pillar and Chaar Minar.

Also read: Delhi to Meerut in 45 minutes; Phase I to be operational by January '18

Delhi-Meerut expressway is also allegedly world’s first expressway to have 14 lanes. The first phase, to be inaugurated on May 26^th, connects Sarai Kale Khan in south-east Delhi to UP Gate (NH-24) and is approximately 8.71 km long.

The entire project involves a 74-km long Delhi-Dasna-Meerut Expressway and upgradation of the 22 km-long Dasna-Hapur section of the NH-24.

The Rs 7,500 crore expressway will not have any traffic signals and will reduce the travel time between Meerut-Delhi to just 40 minutes.

The foundation stone of both these expressways was laid by the prime minister in 2015 to decongest Delhi and reduce air pollution.