Dwarka Expressway before Independence Day next year! Know about India’s first Grade-Separated Urban Expressway

Union Road Transport and Highways Minister Nitin Gadkari on Thursday said he is hopeful that the construction work on the country’s first grade-separated urban expressway, Dwarka Expressway, worth Rs 8,662 crore will be completed before 15 August 2022. The minister was reviewing the progress work on the 29 km long expressway, which links Dwarka in the national capital, Delhi to Gurugram. According to the minister, the Dwarka Expressway will immensely help reducing air pollution in Delhi-NCR. Also, it is the first instance of a project where the plantation of around 12,000 trees has been undertaken. Based on this experience, the method will be replicated across the nation, the minister said.

According to the minister, at present, the Delhi-Gurugram section of NH-8, a part of the Delhi-Jaipur-Ahmedabad-Mumbai arm of Golden Quadrilateral, carries traffic of more than three lakh Passenger Car Units, which is beyond the design capacity of this eight-lane highway. This often leads to severe congestion, however, with the construction of this road project, 50%-60% traffic on NH-8 will be reduced. The project is also likely to offer nearly 50 thousand direct or indirect job opportunities. The project is being constructed in four packages. The expressway’s total length is 29 km out of which 18.9 km length falls in the state of Haryana while the remaining 10.1 km length is in the national capital. The expressway begins from Shiv-Murti on NH-8 and ends near Kherki Daula Toll Plaza.

Once complete, the project will be an engineering marvel of the country as it has several unique features. The Dwarka Expressway will have India’s longest (3.6 km) as well as the widest (eight lane) Urban Road Tunnel. Also, the Dwarka Expressway project’s road network will consist of four levels, i.e., at-grade road, tunnel/underpass, elevated flyover as well as flyover above flyover. The road project will also comprise India’s first ever 9 km long eight-lane flyover (34 metre wide) on a single pier with six-lane service roads.

According to the ministry, there will be a tolling system, which will be fully automated with 22 lanes toll plaza and the entire expressway project will be equipped with ITS. The project will involve an estimated consumption of two lakh MT of steel in total, which is 30 times that of the world-famous Eiffel Tower in France. Besides, the estimated total consumption of 20 lakh Cum of Concrete is Burj Khalifa building’s six times, the ministry added.