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PM Modi flags off Haryana stretch of Dwarka Expressway
The 29km eight-lane roadway, being built for roughly ₹9,000 crore, connects Mahipalpur in south Delhi to the cloverleaf flyover at Kherki Daula in Gurugram
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday took the wraps off the Haryana section of the Dwarka Expressway, a crucial roadway that is expected to ease traffic between Delhi and Gurugram and spur economic growth for large swathes of the two metropolises.
The expressway, Modi said, is a symbol of the progress the region has made, will help shrink the gap between distant neighbourhoods in the National Capital Region (NCR) and supercharge growth in western India.
Read here: PM Modi inaugurates Dwarka Expressway in Haryana. How will it help commuters?
“The construction of expressways opens up a lot of opportunities for rural India, and the Dwarka Expressway is a big example of this,” he said during an address in Gurugram, alongside Union road transport minister Nitin Gadkari and Haryana chief minister Manohar Lal Khattar.
“There was a time when people were afraid and avoided coming to this area. But today, due to safety, security and development brought about by our government, this area has become the most developed in NCR,” he said, touting the eight-lane expressway as an instance of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led Centre delivering on “Modi’s guarantees”.
The 29km eight-lane roadway, being built for roughly ₹9,000 crore, connects Mahipalpur in south Delhi to the cloverleaf flyover at Kherki Daula in Gurugram. An 18.9km portion, between the Delhi-Haryana border near Bajghera and Kherki Daula, runs through the Millennium City and will open for commuters on Wednesday. The remaining 10.1km, which passes from Mahipalpur in Delhi to Bajghera, will be completed in the next four to five months.
Modi on Monday also inaugurated or laid the foundation stones for 112 national highway projects across the country and estimated to cost around ₹1 lakh crore.
“Building major roads and other infrastructure projects, especially in villages and remote areas helps create employment and transforms entire regions. The poor and underprivileged are now getting opportunities that they never did earlier,” he said.
The expressway is one in a slew of infrastructure projects that are either underway or have been completed over the past year aimed at shoring up growth in the Dwarka sub-city.
Five key projects – the Dwarka Expressway, Yashobhoomi convention centre, Urban Extension Road-2, Bharat Vandana Park and a major sports facility – are expected to turn the hitherto insular area into one of the most important parts of the city.
The ongoing work in Dwarka is the third major infrastructure overhaul in the national capital after the 1982 Asian Games, which focused on south Delhi, and the 2010 Commonwealth Games, during which the eastern corner of the city saw significant overhaul.
According to the Union road transport ministry, the stretch is India’s first elevated eight-lane access control urban expressway and is part of the Centre’s ₹60,000 crore highway development plan to decongest the national capital.
The expressway features traffic signal-free lanes, four vehicular underpasses and elevated service road at five major junctions, providing uninterrupted traffic movement.
Prior to his address in Gururgam, Modi held a roadshow on the Dwarka Expressway, during which he inspected a major tunnel near the Indira Gandhi International Airport. He was also briefed about traffic movement near Yashobhoomi.
The PM entered Gurugram at Bajghera and later inspected the trumpet interchange near Central Peripheral Road.
Gadkari called the expressway a state-of-art project.
“The government saved 20% in construction cost against estimates in awarding contracts of Dwarka Expressway,” Gadkari said.
He also said that under the Delhi decongestion plan, the government has launched road and infrastructure projects worth ₹65,000 crore. “These expressways will help in decongesting Delhi-NCR, reduce traffic jams and pollution. Traffic from Gurugram to Dhaula Kuan will be reduced by 50%,” he said.
Read here: Dwarka Expressway inauguration: The impact on Gurugram real estate prices
Khattar, meanwhile, said that under the “double engine government” — referring to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led governments at the Centre and the state — several key initiatives have been launched in Haryana.
“Haryana has been the focal point of the country’s important schemes and important campaigns such as One Rank, One Pension and Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao started from Haryana. Today, four major developmental projects are being initiated in Haryana, for which we express gratitude to the Prime Minister,” he said.
