Phase 4 of DME to drive CO2 emission away from Delhi-Meerut Road

Ghaziabad: The phase 4 of the Delhi Meerut Expressway (DME) that opened to the public for the first time on Thursday will reduce the burden on the existing Delhi-Meerut Road (erstwhile NH-58) --- a route most commuters take to travel to Meerut

Ghaziabad: The phase 4 of the Delhi Meerut Expressway (DME) that opened to the public for the first time on Thursday will reduce the burden on the existing Delhi-Meerut Road (erstwhile NH-58) --- a route most commuters take to travel to Meerut. Officials of the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) said diverting vehicles to phase 4 of the DME will help reduce emission of about 120,000kg of carbon dioxide (CO2) per day.

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According to officials, an estimated 120,000 passenger car units (PCU) take the Delhi-Meerut Road stretching from UP Gate to Partapur in Meerut for about 50km on a daily basis. Officials of the public works department (PWD) said it is estimated that opening phase 4 of the DME will help shift 40% of the vehicles from the Delhi Meerut Road.

“We expect about 40,000 to 45,000 vehicles to get diverted to DME and a majority of long-distance travellers moving to Uttarakhand and western UP will start using the expressway. Hence, the Delhi-Meerut Road will get decongested. About 40kms of the road falls under the jurisdiction of Ghaziabad district,” said Manish Verma, executive engineer of Uttar Pradesh PWD.

The Delhi-Meerut Road passes through city areas, besides towns like Muradnagar and Modinagar in Ghaziabad. The DME, on the other hand, is a six-lane access-controlled expressway which spans about 32km from Dasna to Partapur in Meerut where the Delhi Meerut Road ends.

“As per our calculations, diverting the vehicles to the DME will help reduce emission of about 120,000kg of CO2 per day. The phase 4 of the DME is expected to cater to around 50,000 to 60,000 PCUs. A majority of the vehicles will be diverted from the Delhi-Meerut Road,” said Mudit Garg, project director of NHAI.

The highways authority is also planning to plant about 50,000 trees at the DME. “The DME is being developed as a greenfield expressway. We will plant 10,000 more trees against the previous target of 40,000. The plantation work is going on and will be completed before the beginning of monsoon,” added Garg.

Residents said the DME will also fuel the local economy, besides reducing the pollution levels. “Previously, the air pollution levels would shoot up significantly as vehicles often got stuck in traffic jams on the Delhi Meerut Road. The traffic movement is also slow due to construction of the regional rapid transit system (RRTS). With the opening of the DME, commuters can easily bypass Ghaziabad city and move to Meerut. Once the RRTS project is complete, pollution will further decrease,” said S K Maheshwari, a resident of Surya Nagar.

Ghaziabad is one of the 17 non-attainment cities in Uttar Pradesh having high pollution levels.

Officials from the UP Pollution Control Board said opening the expressway will ensure seamless connectivity, which in turn will help reduce pollution levels.

“We hope our monitoring stations at Indirapuram and Vasundhara show a decline in pollution levels once the DME gets fully operational. The monitoring station at Sanjay Nagar is also likely to show a decline in pollution levels as it is near to Delhi Meerut Road and many vehicles will get diverted to DME. Overall, we are expecting considerable reduction in pollution levels,” said Utsav Sharma, regional officer of the UP Pollution Control Board.