Tatsat Chronicle Magazine

Dwarka Expressway to Be India’s First Elevated Urban Expressway

The Minister for Road Transport and Highways said that the new expressway will be an engineering marvel
July 11, 2022
Dwarka Expressway

The Dwarka Expressway, also known as the Northern Peripheral Road in the Haryana portion, is being developed as the first elevated urban expressway in India, said the Union Minister for Road Transport and Highways, Nitin Gadkari.

According to the plan, the Dwarka Expressway is expected to reduce pressure on the Delhi-Gurgaon Expressway (part of the Delhi-Jaipur-Ahmedabad-Mumbai arm of the Golden Quadrilateral) and arterial roads that experience severe traffic congestion, primarily from the commuters of West Delhi. The minister said in a series of tweets that 50% to 60% of traffic on NH-8 will be diverted onto the new expressway, thereby improving traffic movement towards Sohna Road, Golf Course Road and areas that fall under the Delhi airport’s extended zones.

Once operational in 2023, it shall immensely help reduce the air pollution in Delhi-NCR as well, he added. Gadkari also congratulated Maharashtra Metro and NHAI for creating a world record by constructing the longest double-decker viaduct in Nagpur.

 

 

The Minister said it is a 16-lane access-controlled highway with the provision of a minimum 3-lane service road on both sides. The Expressway connecting Dwarka in Delhi to Gurugram in Haryana is being developed at a total cost of ₹9,000 Crore with a total length of 29 km out of which 19 km length falls in Haryana while the remaining 10 km is in Delhi. Gadkari said Dwarka Expressway would have four multi-level interchanges (tunnel, underpasses, elevated flyover and flyover above flyover) at major junctions including the construction of the longest (3.6 km) and widest (8 lanes) urban road tunnel in India.

The expressway begins from Shiv-Murti on NH-8 (Delhi-Gurugram expressway) and ends near Kherki Daula toll plaza, through Dwarka Sector 21, Gurugram border and Basai, he added. The minister pointed out that the development of this prestigious project will play a pivotal role in the plan to decongest the capital city of Delhi. Once the Dwarka Expressway is completed, it would provide direct access to the upcoming India International Convention Centre (IICC) in Sector 25 of Dwarka and will also provide alternate connectivity to IGI Airport through the shallow tunnel.

The new expressway will be equipped with state-of-the-art Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS) like Advanced Traffic Management systems, Toll Management systems, CCTV Cameras, Surveillance etc. Gadkari said that the project is also “an engineering ace that includes a 34-metre wide 8-lane highway, a first of its kind being constructed on a single pier. The project is estimated to consume two lakh MT of steel (30 times of steel used in Eiffel Tower) and 20 lakh cum of concrete (6 times of concrete used in Burj Khalifa) for its construction.”

Girja Shankar Kaura

The writer is a Delhi-based freelance journalist, who has reported and written on a wide range of subjects in an extensive career.