Snapshot
The 210 km Delhi – Dehradun Expressway will reduce the the travel time between two cities from 6.5 hours to just 2.5 hours. It is being developed at the cost of Rs 12, 200 crores
The upcoming expressway will have Asia’s longest wildlife elevated corridor of 12 km for unrestricted wildlife movement.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi will visit Dehradun on Saturday (4 December) and lay the foundation stone for the Delhi-Dehradun Economic Corridor, which will be built at around Rs 12,300 crore.
The 210 km expressway begins from the Eastern Peripheral Expressway Junction of NCR Delhi and ends near Dehradun.
The Delhi – Dehradun Expressway will have seven major interchanges for Haridwar, Muzaffarnagar, Shamli, Yamunanagar, Baghpat, Meerut and Baraut.
Drastic Reduction In Travel Time
The Delhi – Dehradun Economic corridor will reduce the distance between the two cities from 235 km to 210 km and compress the travel time from 6.5 hours to just 2.5 hours once completed.
The expressway will have 25 kilometres of the elevated road – 6 km in the open, 14 km in tunnels. The entire corridor is designed for driving with a minimum 100 Kmph speed though the six-lane highway will pass through pristine forest areas.
Connecting Haridwar With Delhi
Besides reducing the travel time to the capital of Uttarakhand, the expressway would also improve connectivity to the Hindu spiritual centre, Haridwar, as a greenfield alignment project from Delhi-Dehradun Economic Corridor, connecting Halgoa, Saharanpur to Bhadrabad, Haridwar will be constructed at the cost of over Rs 2,000 crore.
An Eco-friendly Expressway
The upcoming expressway will have Asia’s longest wildlife elevated corridor of 12 km for unrestricted wildlife movement. Also, the 340 m long tunnel near Dat Kaali temple, Dehradun, will help reduce the impact on wildlife. Further, multiple animal passes have been provided in the Ganeshpur-Dehradun section for avoiding animal-vehicle collisions.
Additionally, the Delhi-Dehradun Economic Corridor will also have arrangements for rainwater harvesting at intervals of 500 m and over 400 water recharge points.
Enhanced User Comfort
The economic corridor is planned with wayside amenities every 25-30 km for enhancing the road user experience. And closed toll mechanisms would be adopted to enable pay toll only to the extent of highway use.
Status Of The Project
For the purpose of expediting the construction, the entire length of Delhi – Dehradun Expressway from its starting point at Akshardham to Dehradun will divided into four phases :
Phase 1 will cover a length of 32 km and involve upgrading the existing brownfield road between Akshardham in Delhi to Baghpat’s Eastern Peripheral Expressway (EPE) Interchange in to to six lanes with six-lane service roads in built-up reach, with complete access control. This phase is divided into two packages.
Package-1: Delhi portion of package is 14.75 km long, and 6.4 km is elevated out of this.
Package-2: UP portion of the package will involve 6.85 km, falls in Uttar Pradesh (UP) and out of this, 11.2 km is elevated.
While Package-1 is currently under-construction by Gawar Constructions, Gayatri Projects is implementing Package-2 of this project.
This highway also aims to decongest North East Delhi and enhance the development potential of Tronica city, Mandola Vihar Yojana of UP Government.
Phase 2 is cover a length of 118 km and is a greenfield, six-lane fully access controlled stretch passing through districts of Baghpat, Shamli, Muzaffarnagar and Saharanpur.
While Krishna Constructions is the lowest bidder for 27 km long package-1 and 37 km package-4, Shiv Build India has emerged as the lowest bidder for 25.5 km package-3.
Phase 3 of this expressway project starts from Saharanpur bypass and ends at Ganeshpur. The entire length has recently been upgraded to four lanes by NHAI. Necessary underpasses and service roads are being planned to make it fully access controlled to achieve a minimum 100 kmph speed. Tenders are expected to be flated shortly.
Phase 4 is planned as six lanes with complete access control. This section primarily passes through Reserve Forest in the State of Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand. Out of 20 km, 5 km is brownfield expansion, and 15 km is realignment comprising elevated wildlife corridor (12 km) and approaches the tunnel (structure 340m).
The Right Of Way (ROW) is restricted to 25m in general due to Wildlife concerns. Forest and Wildlife clearances have been obtained.
This section is divided into two packages. According to infrastructure portal Metrorailguy, Vasishta Constructions is the lowest bidder for package-1, and Ram Kumar is the lowest bidder for package-2.
The connectivity boost to the hill state of Uttarakhand from the Delhi – Dehradun Expressway is expected to have a multiplier effect on many sectors of the state, particularly on its tourism industry.
The reduced travel time coupled with enhanced comfort and safety of commuters may further boost tourists footfall around Chardham shrines and other popular tourist and pilgrimage centres of this hill state.