GURUGRAM: State govt on Monday approved the construction of 15.3km service roads on both sides of the Dwarka Expressway, a week ahead of the speedway’s inauguration. The move will address concerns raised by NHAI about the safety of commuters, who are often found taking the speedway through illegal cuts in the absence of service roads. It will also boost intra-city travel for residents of new sectors.
The project, likely to cost around Rs 99.5 crore, was approved in a meeting of the high-power purchase committee on Monday. It is expected to take two and a half years to complete. Prime Minister Narendra Modi is expected to inaugurate the expressway on March 11. In a letter sent last month to govt, the NHAI chairman said due to delay in construction of sector roads by GMDA, local traffic was accessing Dwarka Expressway in an unauthorised manner, posing a threat to road safety.
According to the approved proposal, the service roads will run parallel to the speedway and will serve as a ‘lifeline’ for commuters of neighbouring residential, commercial, and institutional establishments. The roads will be 7.5 metres wide. The project also includes the construction of footpaths and surface drains.
A senior GMDA official said they will soon allocate the work and aim to start construction in a few months. “CM Manohar Lal Khattar approved several development projects for the city on Monday, which will soon be taken up by GMDA. Several townships are under development on the periphery of the expressway. These service roads will ease traffic movement and provide access to the speedway,” said GMDA chief executive officer A Sreenivas.
Even though the expressway will be opened to traffic soon, residents of nearby areas won’t have direct access to the access-controlled corridor until 2026, when work on the service roads will be complete. Until then, they will either have to take detours or use makeshift ramps. TOI on Monday reported that NHAI demolished several such unauthorised ramps on Friday, but many of them were reconstructed in a couple of days.
There are around 200 societies in sectors along the expressway, where most of the city’s growing population is increasingly shifting, apart from several villages.
“While the inauguration of Dwarka Expressway is a significant milestone for the city, the delayed response from govt to ensure proper connectivity with the speedway will surely pose a challenge for commuters. We hope the authorities will take up this project speedily,” said Shantanu Parmar, a resident of Sector 109.
The Rs 11.8 crore project will involve reconstruction of the main carriageway, surface drain and footpaths by Nov this year. The metropolitan authority will also construct slip roads, streetlights at junctions and road safety furniture such as road studs, cat’s eyes and bollards.
