The Union transport ministry has approved a plan for a 155km corridor between Akshardham in Delhi and Saharanpur in Uttar Pradesh, ahead of the Lok Sabha elections.

The Rs 4,405-crore corridor, which has been declared as National Highway 709B, will provide seamless connectivity between Delhi and Uttar Pradesh and help decongest the national capital.

The project has been divided in four sections: Akshardham to Khajuri Khas/U.P Border, Khauri Khas/ UP Border to Mandola-Eastern Peripheral Expressway (EPE) intersection, EPE intersection to Shamli Bypass and Shamli Bypass to Saharanpur Bypass. The corridor will be six-laned, access-controlled with service roads on both sides. In the city, the corridor will pass through densely-populated areas such as Geeta Colony, Shastri Park and Khajuri Khas till the Delhi-UP border in northeast Delhi.

On Thursday, while announcing the project, BJP MP from northeast Delhi Manoj Tiwari said, “This is an important project as it will decongest large parts of east and northeast Delhi and provide seamless connectivity between the national capital and Uttar Pradesh. Union transport minister Nitin Gadkari will lay the foundation stone for the project on January 26.”

Tiwari, who is also the party’s Delhi unit chief, said he has been pursuing the matter with the transport ministry for the past one-and-a-half years. “Areas like Geeta Colony, Khajuri Khas are extremely congested and availability of land is a serious issue. Now, a large portion of the corridor will be elevated. This will bring down the construction time,” said Tiwari, while sharing a letter written to him by Gadkari giving the details of the project.

According to a senior National Highway Authority of India official, of the 32km section between Delhi and EPE, 19kms will be elevated, starting from Geeta colony till Khajuri Khas and then from Loni till EPE intersection.

“In Delhi, around 7.5km stretch will be elevated starting from Geeta colony till the U.P border. The elevated section will pass over the railway line near Old Railway Bridge and flyover at Khuri Khas. The bids for the section between Delhi and EPE will be invited in a week’s time,” said RP Singh, project director, NHAI.

While the opening of Signature Bridge has eased traffic movement between north and east Delhi, NHAI officials say the new project will provide smooth traffic movement between Noida and east Delhi to neighbouring states.

The remaining portion of the NH-709B, which will be 124kmlong, will be constructed between EPE and Saharanpur. While NHAI has awarded the work for the section between EPE junction to Shamli bypass, it has received bid for the section between Shamli bypass to Saharanpur bypass.

First Published: Jan 18, 2019 13:25 IST