Centre, state slug it out on road plan

The Centre and Haryana government are at loggerheads on the issue of connecting the proposed northern and southern peripheral roads near Kherki Daula toll plaza on Gurgaon Expressway. Sanjeev K Ahuja reports.

The Centre and Haryana government are at loggerheads on the issue of connecting the proposed northern and southern peripheral roads near Kherki Daula toll plaza on Gurgaon Expressway.

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The Union ministry of road transport and highways wants both the roads - Northern Peripheral Road (NPR) and Southern Peripheral Road (SPR) - to converge at NH-8 (road going towards Manesar), one kilometre after the toll plaza, citing better management of traffic.

However, the state government wants to go ahead with the original plan of connecting the highway to the two roads before the toll plaza.

Ministry officials have accused the Haryana government of favouring the Gurgaon Expressway developer whose revenue would go up manifold as the entire Jaipur-bound traffic using SPR and NPR would converge at the toll plaza.

SPR connects MG Road to Gurgaon Expressway (NH-8) while NPR connects Dwarka in Delhi with the expressway through New Palam Vihar and newly marked sectors in Gurgaon Master Plan 2021.

In a recent meeting between ministry officials and the state government, both sides had heated arguments and exchanged bitter words on the issue, a highly placed source said.

Director general (roads) RP Indoria was representing the central ministry and K K Jalan, former principal secretary (town and country planning), was representing Haryana.

Indoria confirmed that a meeting was held with government officials but he refused to divulge the details. Jalan could not be contacted for comment.

Sources in Haryana government said both SPR and NPR were planned in the Gurgaon Master Plan 2021 and there was no question of realigning them as the sectoral planning of the newly carved out 58 sectors had been completed and private developers had been given licences to develop projects.