Soon 2 lakh cars fewer on city roads

If all goes well, Delhis main roads will be slightly decongested from July 1 which also means a moderate fall in vehicular pollution too.

Nearly two lakh vehicles, mostly the smoke-emitting trucks plying from Uttar Pradesh (UP) to Haryana and vice-versa which are otherwise forced to cross Delhi will now get an alternate faster route, bypassing the national Capital through Eastern Peripheral Expressway (EPE) and Western Peripheral Expressway (WPE), each 135km-long.

The Supreme Court (SC) on Thursday ordered National Highway Authority of India (NHAI) to throw open from June 1 the EPE, providing signal-free connectivity between Ghaziabad, Faridabad, Greater Noida in UP and Palwal in Haryana.

NHAI told the bench, headed by Justice Madan B Lokur, that work on the WPE, which connects Kundli to Palwal via Manesar in Haryana, will be completed by June 30.

The project was envisaged 13 years ago to reduce traffic congestion and pollution in the national Capital.

NHAI told the court that the EPE was scheduled to be inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on April 29 but it could not be done due to his prior commitments.

But questioning the delay in throwing it open, the judges made it categorical to NHAI that the stretch should be opened on June 1 irrespective of whether the PM is available or not for the inauguration as public interest does not permit further delay as already 13 years have passed since the project was conceived.

The two expressways were planned in 2005 following an SC order to form a ring road outside Delhi for channeling non-Delhi bound traffic which otherwise passes through the national Capital.

For example, currently trucks from Gurgaon heading to Ghaziabad and vice-versa pass through Delhi causing pollution and accidents.

The order came in a PIL filed in 1985 by environmentalist M C Mehta seeking various directions to decongest and de-pollute the national Capital. Haryana government told the bench that 81 per cent work of the 135-km WPE was done, and the private entity involved in the work had assured that construction would be completed by June 30 this year.

Pulling up the Centre for the delay in constructing the expressways, SC had in January 2015 asked the NHAI and the government to resume the work within three months.