1st Phase of Delhi-Mumbai E-Way to be Ready by 2021
By next Diwali, the first phase of Delhi-Mumbai expressway — from Sohna to Jaipur — will be operational, top NHAI officials have said. Barely taking 25 months to build, this will perhaps be the fastest highway stretch constructed in highway authority’s history. The work for this stretch was awarded in October last year.
Officials said the entire expressway will be operational by October-November 2022, which is within three years from when work started on the country’s longest greenfield expressway. NHAI had added DND Flywayto-Sohna-stretch to the expressway package later to provide direct connectivity to the national capital, and this link would also be completed in time as all the tenders have been awarded.
The stretch between Delhi and Vadodara will be bituminous while the reamaining stretch from Vadodara to Mumbai will be cement concrete.
“Though the expressway initially starts from Sohna, commuters will be able to access the entire corridor from Dhaula Kuan to Jaipur seamlessly in the first phase. The link from Rajiv Chowk in Gurgaon to Sohna is being turned into a six-lane access controlled highway, so vehicles won’t need to stop anywhere on this entire stretch,” a NHAI official explained.
The contractors engaged in this project have already started bituminous work on certain stretches. “We get the monthly progress using drones on the entire stretch and we are following the same for all greenfield highway projects. There is strict monitoring at every level,” said NHAI member (technical) Manoj Kumar.
Officials said the main reasons behind the fast progress of this flagship expressway project was fixing the alignment through backward districts and using digitised revenue records for designing, engineering and accurate land acquisition. The digitised land acquisition portal “Bhoomirashi” also played a key role in expediting the process. They added that NHA also used advanced aerial drone lidar survey technique while preparing the detailed project report, which helped faster roll out of the works.
The project is being directly monitored by NHAI chairman S S Sandhu every week and also by road secretary Giridhar Aramane and Union highways minister Nitin Gadkari on a regular basis. Sources said another reason the project could be fastened was the ‘packaging’ of stretches, which attracted high-performing medium size highway builders. The entire expressway has been divided into 44 packages.
“The issue of delayed land acquisition for one stretch is being resolved and we are hopeful of getting the entire required land in the next 2-3 months. We are confident of completing the entire expressway by the end of 2022,” said another official involved in the project.
Source : TOI
