Dwarka expressway project: To resolve issues of delays in the Dwarka expressway project, the Prime Minister’s office (PMO) is likely to step in to escalate the process. According to an HT report, officials from the PMO called a high-level meeting to address the pending issues. The Rs 7,500 crore Dwarka Expressway project, which was initially planned in 2006, has been suffering on account of unending delays for more than a decade. This has been due to problems pertaining to land acquisition and other legal hurdles. The project had also been caught between various agreements among authorities and has faced setbacks in its developmental pace and execution.
The Dwarka Expressway will be a high-speed link road, also officially known as Northern Peripheral Road. It will be 18-kms long and 150 metres wide, and will runs in a smooth parabola from Mahipalpur in Delhi to Kherki Daula in Gurugram. It will help decongest the vehicular traffic at the Delhi-Gurgaon Expressway and bring relief to myriad of homebuyers who have invested in housing projects along the expressway. It will provide the much-needed third link between Gurgaon and New Delhi.
Last month, Union Minister of Road Transport and Highways, Nitin Gadkari, had called a meeting with top officials from the Transport Ministry, Delhi Development Authority (DDA), Delhi Chief Secretary and National Highway Authority of India (NHAI), seeking to resolve the standoff between the Central and the Delhi government over the contention of felling of trees along the Delhi leg of the expressway. Earlier, the Delhi government was working on the proposal to allow the cutting of trees on the 9.5 km long section of the expressway, which falls in the national capital.
A senior official of the NHAI was quoted in the report saying that a meeting has been called on 21st November by the PMO to resolve the pending issues with egards to the Dwarka Expressway. According to senior ministry officials, DDA had agreed to provide the land to NHAI for afforestation of the trees and latter was to bear the entire cost. The project involves the felling or translocation of around 13,000 trees. An official was quoted saying that NHAI is pressing for the displacement of around 9,000 trees and DDA agreed to provide the land. One of the demands of the forest department was that DDA provides the land at one stretch for translocation of the trees. It was reported earlier that PMO had written to the Delhi Lieutenant Governor, Anil Baijal, seeking his intervention to expedite the required clearances.
