The first phase of construction or packages 1,2 and 3 of the Urban Extension Road Project (UER-II) in Delhi is on track to be completed by September, ahead of the earlier deadline of October 2023.
"The construction of the first phase of the UER-II of length 38.111 km is on track to be inaugurated by mid-September," senior officials from the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways of India said.
Around 60 percent of the construction of the UER-II has been completed to date, and the speed of construction has picked up significantly in the last few weeks, a senior official from the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) said.
"So far, 60 percent of the work is complete: 55 percent on Package 1, 45 percent on Package 2, 90 percent on Package 3, 72 percent on Package 4, and 67 percent on Package 5 have been completed," the official said.
He added that barring any delays due to rain, construction of the UER-II should be completed by mid-September.
The official also said that around 10 lakh metric tonnes of inert waste material has been used in the construction of UER II.
"The Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) has provided around 11 lakh metric tonnes of inert waste material for the UER-II, and another nine lakh metric tonnes will be provided in the next two months," the official said.
“The requirement of the garbage will be fulfilled from the existing landfill sites in Delhi. The corporation is planning to utilise the garbage from the Okhla landfill site for the project,” a senior MCD official said.
The official also said that garbage has been used in the construction of roads previously as it is believed to provide strength to the structure when mixed with bitumen.
The six-lane road was proposed in the Master Plan of Delhi, 2021, and was touted as the third Ring Road to decongest the current Ring Road and Delhi-Gurugram Expressway.
The UER-II is being constructed by H G Infra Engineering at an estimated cost of Rs 7,716 crore as part of the plan to decongest Delhi. The national capital's third ring road is proposed to be developed in five packages.
The UER-II will help decongest Delhi from traffic meant for other north Indian states like Punjab, Northern Haryana, Jammu and Kashmir (J&K), Himachal Pradesh, and Uttrakhand by providing an alternate route.
Officials said that the UER-II will facilitate vehicles to go from West Delhi to South Delhi via the outskirts of Delhi.
The stretch will also allow people to travel faster between Gurugram and IGI Airport. Apart from this, the journey between Chandigarh, Punjab, and J&K will also become easier.
The 75.71-km project is being developed in five different packages. The first three packages have together been numbered as NH-344M and is the core of the UER-II road.
The fourth package (NH-344P) begins at NH-344M and ends at NH-352A (Barwasini bypass), serving as a spur to the Sonipat bypass.
Similarly, the fifth package (NH-344N) is a spur to the Bahadurgarh bypass, connecting NH-344M (near Village Dhichaon Kalan) in Delhi to NH-10 (near Bahadurgarh).