Centre gives NHAI funds nod for Akshardham-Baghpat corridor

Ghaziabad: The National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) has received the financial approval for the 31.2km-long Akshardham-Ghaziabad-Baghpat corridor, which is part of the Union government’s ambitious plan to decongest Delhi and Ghaziabad.
The entire corridor will be developed in two packages — 14.75km from Akshardham to UP Gate at an estimated cost of Rs 1,300 crore, and 16.45km from UP Gate to Khekra near Eastern Peripheral Expressway, Baghpat, at an estimated Rs 1,900 crore. Of the total length of 31.2km, some 17 km will be elevated.
“The Union ministry of road transport and highways and NHAI board have given financial approval for the corridor, which is crucial to decongest Delhi and Ghaziabad city. The bids for the project have been opened and the last date is September 30,” said Mudit Garg, project manager, NHAI. “We plan to start work on this section by January next year and hope to wrap up work on both the packages by the end of 2022 or early 2023.”
Explaining the importance of the six-lane access-controlled corridor, Garg said that this will provide seamless connectivity to six western UP districts from Delhi via Ghaziabad. “The project was conceived to decongest Delhi. Once complete, it will reduce the travel time to Baghpat from three hours to less than 30 minutes.”
This corridor is also part of the 155-km-long National Highway-709B project between Akshardham and Saharanpur Bypass, aimed at providing seamless connectivity between Delhi and UP.
The NH-709B project is divided in four packages — Akshardham-Loni, Loni-Eastern Peripheral Expressway intersection near Khekra, EPE intersection-Shamli Bypass and Shamli Bypass-Saharanpur Bypass. Work on the EPE intersection-Shamli Bypass section started in February last year, while the Shamli Bypass to Saharanpur Bypass work started in January 2019.
There is also a plan to extend NH-709B to Dehradun and Uttarakhand chief minister Trivendra Singh Rawat, in February this year, had given in-principle approval for connecting it to the state capital. “The distance between Delhi and Dehradun is about 256km and it takes more than five hours to reach there. A signal-free drive on the proposed Delhi-Dehradun Expressway will cut travel time by 2.5 hours,” said Garg.
The foundation for the 31.3-km-long Akshardham-Ghaziabad-Baghpat corridor was laid by Union minister for road transport and highways Nitin Gadkari in January last year.