NHAI begins work to restructure DME near Crossings Republik

Under the proposed plan, the present entry/exit point near Crossings Republik will be shifted 500 metres towards Lal Kuan intersection

The National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) has commenced the work on ground to restructure the entry/exit of the Delhi-Meerut Expressway (DME) near Ghaziabad’s Crossings Republik township, NHAI officials said on Saturday, adding that the project may complete in three months.

The NHAI has initiated work for restructuring of entry/exit on Delhi Meerut Expressway near Crossings Republik to smoothen traffic flow and stop instances of wrong side driving in Ghaziabad. (Shakib Ali/HTPhoto)

The restructuring will be undertaken under phase-2 (UP-Gate to Dasna) of the DME, which has three inner lanes on each side as expressway lanes while the four outer lanes on each side are dedicated to the National Highway 9 (NH9).

The entry/exit point near Crossings Republik is currently placed in such a way that many vehicles drive for several metres on the wrong side of NH9 to get onto the expressway while heading from Ghaziabad to Delhi, according to officials.

It creates traffic issues, and risk as traffic coming on the expressway lanes gets hindered from vehicles that are trying to move to expressway lanes from NH9, said NHAI officials. For now, the traffic police have also deployed personnel to check instances of wrong-side driving, they added.

Under the proposed plan, the present entry/exit point near Crossings Republik will be shifted 500 metres towards Lal Kuan intersection, according to the officials.

It is also proposed that an entry point on the Ghaziabad to Delhi-lane from the NH9 to DME will come up 300 metres after the Crossings Republik township for ease of commuters, the officials added.

“We have initiated ground work for this project and the cost is estimated at around ₹9.5 crore which include about ₹6.5 crore for civil construction while the rest of the funds will be used for signages, CCTVs etc. The work will go on for three months. During this period, we are trying minimal traffic diversion at the spot to ease traffic flow,” said an NHAI official requesting anonymity.

Once the work gets complete, commuters will need not drive wrong way and traffic from NH9 and Crossings Republik will be able to merge smoothly with traffic on expressway, the officials said.