GURUGRAM: As the Kundli-Manesar-Palwal (
KMP) expressway nears completion, the state government has chalked out a plan to develop 144 villages along the 135km stretch as "smart villages" and a university apart from several other projects, including 13 theme cities, already lined up for the industrial corridor.
TOI has learnt that the state government has handed over the responsibility of developing the 144 smart villages to the principal secretary of urban local bodies,
Anand Mohan Sharan, while HSIIDC chief
Raj Shekhar Vundru has been assigned the responsibility to study the feasibility of setting up a university along the expressway near Sohna.
The government is also planning a number of solar power projects and an app for the KMP expressway.
"The state government is focused on developing the KMP corridor in terms of business and revenue, and various projects in this regard have been assigned to senior IAS officers.
A meeting on these projects is expected to be held in January next year under the chairmanship of chief minister
Manohar Lal Khattar," said a senior official.
While Sharan has been assigned the responsibility of developing the villages along the corridor and coming up with ideas on advertising policy for the corridor, five more officials were assigned other responsibilities.
MCG commissioner
V Umashankar has been asked to study the feasibility of installation of the solar projects in village panchayat land along the expressway. The commissioner has also been asked to work on solar street lighting along the expressway, sources said.
"The task to study the feasibility of the app dedicated to KMP expressway has been designated to the director of town and country planning, TL Satyaprakash. He has also been asked to validate land records," sources said.
The second stretch of the KMP expressway between Kundli and Manesar is currently under construction and is expected to be complete by the first quarter of 2018 — that too, after missing many deadlines.
Originally started in 2006, the expressway was allotted to concessionaire M/s KMP Expressway Limited, with a completion date of July 2009. When it failed to deliver on time, the agreement was cancelled on court orders.
Thereafter, the project went to the backburner, before gaining momentum under the present dispensation, as it would create a high speed connect between northern and southern districts of the state, augmenting industrial activity in Kundli and Manesar.
In July 2015, a sub-committee headed by the chief minister approved the second phase between Kundli and Manesar. It had by then set an overall deadline for completion of the project at January 2016, with Essel Infra Group the new concessionaire.
The 53km stretch between Palwal and Manesar was inaugurated in April 2016 by Union road transport and highways minister Nitin Gadkari. The project attracted his ministry's interest as it is expected to de-congest NCR by providing non-Delhi bound traffic an alternative route that doesn't need such traffic to enter the national capital.
The six-lane highway will be access-controlled and have four rail overbridges at Farrukhnagar (Ghari railway line), Rewari (Pataudi railway line) and Delhi (Rohtak and Ambala railway lines).
