Ghaziabad: After the state government provided no fund for the Northern Peripheral Road in the 2020-21 budget, the Ghaziabad Development Authority (GDA) has decided to downsize the 19km road to about 12km and also reduce the number of lanes.
The NPR was proposed to connect NH-9, Delhi-Meerut Road and Loni and act as a bypass for city commuters.
The officials of GDA said they had sought funds of about ₹490 crore from the state government but there was no announcement to this effect in the recent budget. As a result, the officials have decided to fund the NPR through their infrastructure development funds, after downsizing the project cost to about ₹135 crore.
“The NPR was proposed as a six-laned 19km road. But in view of the fund crunch, we will be going ahead with a plan to build a 12km four-laned road. The first stretch will start from Madhuban Bapudham housing project site and will go up to Manan Dham on the Delhi-Meerut Road. This will cost us about ₹70 crore, including the cost of a rail over bridge which is proposed to be built at a cost of ₹60 crore,” VN Singh, chief engineer, GDA, said.
The officials said after Manan Dham, the road will move ahead for about three kilometres towards Loni and will take a turn towards the outer periphery of Raj Nagar Extension.
{{/usCountry}}The officials said after Manan Dham, the road will move ahead for about three kilometres towards Loni and will take a turn towards the outer periphery of Raj Nagar Extension.
{{/usCountry}}“This stretch will end near the proposed Cricket stadium. This stretch will cost us about ₹65 crore and will have no sewer or drainage systems. The initial plan of constructing a stretch from NH-9 to Madhuban Bapudham will be dropped due to the high cost involved and also due to the fact that we have to purchase some more land for the road construction,” Singh said.
The GDA, last December, had proposed to join its NPR with the phase 4 of the Delhi-Meerut Expressway. After a lot of deliberations, the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) had denied its connection with the elevated portion of the expressway.
The NHAI, however, asked the GDA to merge the NPR as a surface road with NH-9 near Dasna/Masuri.