The National Highway Authority of India (NHAI) is likely to make operational the first phase of the Delhi-Dehradun greenfield access-controlled expressway — between Akshardham in the Capital to Baghpat in Uttar Pradesh — by the end of June this year, officials aware of the matter said on Thursday.
“Phase 1 of the project is 90-95% complete, and work is on to set signage, expansion joints and other infrastructure in place. The work for the carriageways is also complete. We believe that phase 1 will be made operational by the end of June,” a senior NHAI official said, on condition of anonymity.
This section was initially slated to be ready by March, but restrictions on construction activities under the graded response action plan (Grap) to control air pollution led to delays, the official said.
The six-lane expressway as a whole is around 212km in length. Officials did not share when the project is likely to be ready by, but NHAI had earlier this year stated that the crucial highway will be ready by mid-2025.
The high-speed corridor, which consists of both ground-level and elevated sections, is being built at an estimated cost of ₹12,000 crore. It will give seamless connectivity to commuters between Delhi and Dehradun, and will halve the travel time from the current 5 hours to 2-and-a-half hours, officials said.
At present, commuters travelling to Dehradun from Delhi take a route which is about 250km in length, navigating through congested stretches of Ghaziabad, Meerut, Muzffarnagar, Roorkee, and Haridwar.
The Akshardham to Baghpat stretch of the new expressway, which is around 31.65km of the project, comprises two packages — from Akshardham to Khekra, and from Khekra to the Mavi Kalan interchange on the Eastern Peripheral Expressway (EPE) in Baghpat.
“Phase 1 includes an elevated section of about 18km, with 6km in Delhi (Geeta Colony to Khajuri Khas), and the remaining 12km (Police Chowki to Mavi village) in Uttar Pradesh,” the officer quoted above said.
According to the official, the estimated civil construction cost of packages 1 and 2 is ₹1,100 crore and ₹1,324 crore, respectively.
However, a proposal floated by the Ghaziabad development authority to link the Northern Peripheral Road — connecting NH-9 to Loni — to the Delhi-Dehradun expressway is yet to materialise, officials said.
HT had in April 2023 reported that the expressway, also known as NH-72A, will pass through Baghpat, Shamli, and Saharanpur in Uttar Pradesh, and is being constructed to match international standards, according to Union road transport and highways minister Nitin Gadkari.
The minister said that the expressway has several special provisions to help in the movement of wildlife, which include six animal underpasses. He further said that the expressway will give a major boost to the economic development along the Delhi-Dehradun-Saharanpur corridor and will boost tourism activities in Uttarakhand.
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