Government changes KMP Expressway opening date again, November 17 or 18 likely

GURUGRAM: The inauguration of the 83-km Kundli-Manesar stretch of the KMP Expressway by Prime Minister Narendra Modi has been postponed by a week from its earlier date of November 10.
This is the third time that the inauguration of the stretch has been delayed.

HSIIDC, the government authority looking after the project, has sought a week’s time to complete pending work like cleaning and setting up boards. Along with KMP, sources said the PM will also lay the foundation stone of the two phases of Dwarka Expressway when he visits the city.

Union minister and Gurugram MP Rao Inderjit Singh said, “PM Modi will come to inaugurate the KMP Expressway in the city.” A senior HSIIDC official added, “We have not received a confirmation of the two dates finalised — November 17 and 18 — but the project will be thrown open in between these two days. The project is 98% complete and only minor things like cleaning up and putting up of boards are left, which will be done in the one-week period left. Everything else has been completed.”

KMP Expressway is being built at a cost of Rs 1,863 crore. It was supposed to be completed by 2009, but missed several deadlines. The expressway has eight small and six big bridges, four railway over bridges and 34 underpasses.

The total length of the expressway is 135km, of which the Manesar-Palwal stretch was inaugurated by Union minister Nitin Gadkari last year.

Sources in the state government told TOI that the PM might lay also the foundation stone of the two phases of the Dwarka Expressway which lie in Gurugram when he comes to inaugurate the Dwarka Expressway. “There’s a big possibility that PM might lay the foundation stone of Dwarka Expressway along with the KMP project,” a source said.

Forming a ring around NCR, KMP Expressway and the Eastern Peripheral Expressway were conceived to ensure that non-destined commercial vehicles do not enter the city limits of Delhi.