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Delhi-Meerut Expressway gets new deadline: December 2020
CITIES
Updated: Aug 31, 2020 23:43 IST
Peeyush Khandelwal
The National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) is now treating December 2020 as the extended deadline of the Delhi-Meerut Expressway (DME) project after Union road transport minister Nitin Gadkari tweeted that the DME will be completed by December 2020.
The DME comprises four phases of which phase 1 (Akshardham to UP Gate) and phase 3 ( Dasna to Hapur) are operational. Phase 2 (UP Gate to Dasna) and phase 4 (Dasna to Meerut ) are under construction. The NHAI officials said the previous deadline was May 2020 which is now been extended to December 2020.
“Delhi-Meerut Expressway will be completed by December 2020. It will further ease traffic and reduce pollution in Delhi/NCR. The aerial video gives us the glimpse of its ongoing and completed work. #PragatiKaHighway,” Gadkari had tweeted on Sunday.
The phase 2 is about 19.2km while phase 4 is about 32km and stretches from Dasna in Ghaziabad to Meerut and is being built as a six-lane access-controlled highway.
“Since the minister has announced the deadline of December 2020, it will now be the our official completion time. We are also planning that the six lanes of the expressway from Delhi to Meerut gets complete before December,” said Mudit Garg, project director NHAI.
“We will now be holding meetings at our headquarters and also at local level to expedite work as per the revised deadline,” he said.
The 14 lanes of the DME comprise six lanes of expressway (towards the centre) while the four outer lanes on each side will be dedicated highway lanes. The expressway lanes run from Akshardham to Meerut over a distance of 60km and is likely to be converted into a cashless stretch with the installation of automatic registration plate readers. These readers help calculate the distance covered by a vehicle, going by its entry and exit points, and automatically deduct from the toll from the e-wallet of the traveller.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on December 31, 2015, had laid the foundation stone for the DME project. In November 2019, the deadline of DME was revised to May 2020, which has now been extended.
However, there are more challenges ahead with the new deadline. The phase 2 is about 84% complete while phase 4 is 74% complete. But officials are now carrying out construction with a 40-50% lesser workforce as most migrant workers left for their villages in the wake of the Covid-19 lockdown on March 25.
“We have some issues with farmers and about 10% of the compensation promised to them is still pending. Some farmers have not taken the compensation while others have moved the court demanding more money. We have paid the highest possible compensation to farmers for the DME project,” Garg said.
According to officials, they have paid bout ₹60 crore per kilometre as compensation to farmers as against ₹40 crore per kilometre given for the Eastern Peripheral Expressway.
“We are also trying to manage the ongoing work with fewer workers. Overall, for phase 2, we require about 1,500 workers and for phase 2, we require 1,300 workers. Also, we still need clearance for one span of the Chipiyana rail over bridge under phase 2,” he said.
The phase 1 of the project caters to about 1.2 lakh passenger car units (PCUs) per day while the phase 2 is estimated to cater to about 60000 PCUs per day. The estimated PCU for the phase 4 is about 48000 per day.
Delhi-Meerut Expressway gets new deadline: December 2020
CITIES
Updated: Aug 31, 2020 23:43 IST
Peeyush Khandelwal
The National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) is now treating December 2020 as the extended deadline of the Delhi-Meerut Expressway (DME) project after Union road transport minister Nitin Gadkari tweeted that the DME will be completed by December 2020.
The DME comprises four phases of which phase 1 (Akshardham to UP Gate) and phase 3 ( Dasna to Hapur) are operational. Phase 2 (UP Gate to Dasna) and phase 4 (Dasna to Meerut ) are under construction. The NHAI officials said the previous deadline was May 2020 which is now been extended to December 2020.
“Delhi-Meerut Expressway will be completed by December 2020. It will further ease traffic and reduce pollution in Delhi/NCR. The aerial video gives us the glimpse of its ongoing and completed work. #PragatiKaHighway,” Gadkari had tweeted on Sunday.
The phase 2 is about 19.2km while phase 4 is about 32km and stretches from Dasna in Ghaziabad to Meerut and is being built as a six-lane access-controlled highway.
“Since the minister has announced the deadline of December 2020, it will now be the our official completion time. We are also planning that the six lanes of the expressway from Delhi to Meerut gets complete before December,” said Mudit Garg, project director NHAI.
“We will now be holding meetings at our headquarters and also at local level to expedite work as per the revised deadline,” he said.
The 14 lanes of the DME comprise six lanes of expressway (towards the centre) while the four outer lanes on each side will be dedicated highway lanes. The expressway lanes run from Akshardham to Meerut over a distance of 60km and is likely to be converted into a cashless stretch with the installation of automatic registration plate readers. These readers help calculate the distance covered by a vehicle, going by its entry and exit points, and automatically deduct from the toll from the e-wallet of the traveller.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on December 31, 2015, had laid the foundation stone for the DME project. In November 2019, the deadline of DME was revised to May 2020, which has now been extended.
However, there are more challenges ahead with the new deadline. The phase 2 is about 84% complete while phase 4 is 74% complete. But officials are now carrying out construction with a 40-50% lesser workforce as most migrant workers left for their villages in the wake of the Covid-19 lockdown on March 25.
“We have some issues with farmers and about 10% of the compensation promised to them is still pending. Some farmers have not taken the compensation while others have moved the court demanding more money. We have paid the highest possible compensation to farmers for the DME project,” Garg said.
According to officials, they have paid bout ₹60 crore per kilometre as compensation to farmers as against ₹40 crore per kilometre given for the Eastern Peripheral Expressway.
“We are also trying to manage the ongoing work with fewer workers. Overall, for phase 2, we require about 1,500 workers and for phase 2, we require 1,300 workers. Also, we still need clearance for one span of the Chipiyana rail over bridge under phase 2,” he said.
The phase 1 of the project caters to about 1.2 lakh passenger car units (PCUs) per day while the phase 2 is estimated to cater to about 60000 PCUs per day. The estimated PCU for the phase 4 is about 48000 per day.
Delhi-Meerut Expressway gets new deadline: December 2020
