Gadkari to take stock of Dwarka Expressway progress

The union minister for road transport and highways Nitin Gadkari will visit the Dwarka Expressway on Thursday to assess the status of the project and suggest measures to ensure that work is expedited on this project, which has been in the works since 2008

The union minister for road transport and highways Nitin Gadkari will visit the Dwarka Expressway on Thursday to assess the status of the project and suggest measures to ensure that work is expedited on this project, which has been in the works since 2008.

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A senior official of the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI), meanwhile, said that work on phases 3 and 4 of the project, which are located in Gurugram, was delayed due to the Covid-19 pandemic and that they would be completed by August 2021. “The work on these two phases is going on at a fast pace. The work on phases 1 and 2 in Delhi has started only recently and we are working hard to ensure that this project is completed by the end of 2022,” he said, adding that a delay in the transfer of a small plot near Kherki Daula remains the only stumbling block.

Work on the Dwarka Expressway project, conceived by the Haryana government, was originally expected to be completed in 2014. However, due to delays in land acquisition and legal obstacles, the project was transferred by the state government to NHAI in 2016, which expanded the scope of this project and decided to create an access-controlled expressway with a toll plaza, at a cost of ₹7,000 crore. The 29-km expressway, with 10 kilometres in Delhi and the rest in the city, will connect Kherki Daula on the Delhi-Gurgaon Expressway with Shiv Murti near Mahipalpur.

Singh said on Tuesday, “The visit of the transport minister will start from Kherki Daula toll plaza on Thursday. He will inspect the entire highway under construction in four phases and interact with officials and the project contractors.”

According to Singh, Prime Minister Narendra Modi also expressed concern about the delay in completing Dwarka Expressway during a Pragati meeting chaired by him on December 30, 2020.

“The pace of work has slowed due to technical reasons, particularly on the Delhi side. The visit by transport minister will help in resolving the issues as decisions on these are taken at the highest level and issues resolved with his intervention on the spot,” said Singh.