NHAI takes up development of signal-free corridor from Dhaula Kuan to Airport

National Highway No.8 (New NH-48) is the prime link providing connectivity to IGI Airport from Delhi and NCR.

Shri Nitin Gadkari, Union Minister of Road Transport and Highways and Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises inaugurated a three-lane underpass at Parade Road junction near Manekshaw  Centre on NH 8 in New Delhi today. With the opening of this underpass, movement of traffic from Airport to Dhaula Kuan would become signal free. The underpass was completed in a record time of 112 days and is part of NHAI’s project for the development of a signal-free corridor from Dhaula Kuan interchange to IGI Airport.

National Highway No.8 (New NH-48) is the prime link providing connectivity to IGI Airport from Delhi and NCR. The frequent traffic jams in the corridor result in travel time of 10-30 minutes in crossing the 3 km stretch between Dhaula Kuan interchange and the Airport. To tackle this problem, NHAI has taken up the development of a signal-free corridor from Dhaula Kuan interchange to Airport at an estimated cost of Rs.270 crore.  The project includes widening of Dhaula Kuan – IGI corridor from 6-lanes to 8-lanes a three-lane flyover from Janakpuri road to merge with NH-8, the three-lane vehicular underpass at Parade Road junction that was inaugurated today, 3 PUPs, 2 VUPs and a FOB for pedestrians. The work on the project commenced in March 2018 and is now 75 % complete.

The project has huge challenges in terms of traffic management of about 3 lakhs PCUs per day, presence of a large number of civil and defense utilities, shifting of defense infrastructure and getting security clearances.  The work plan for the project was prioritized with the objective of providing early relief to the commuters. As a first step towards the development of the signal free corridor, a flyover at Dhaula Kuan junction near DhaulaKuan Metro Station was completed in a record time of 136 working days and opened to traffic on 02.03.2019. Widening of the carriageway to 4 lanes on either side has been substantially completed.  The total time elapsed since the commencement of the work is 374 days, out of which work could not be executed on 257 days on account of security restrictions, environmental prohibitions and shifting of IGL gas pipeline.

This project would be in addition to the nine other projects being implemented for decongesting NCR Delhi. These include  the 22 km, 6-lane elevated corridor on Gurugram-Sohna Road costing Rs 2000 Crore on which work has started; 8-lane Delhi-Panipat highway from MukarbaChowk to Panipat on NH-1 being constructed at a cost of Rs 2300; the 29 km, 8 lane access controlled Dwarka Expressway costing about Rs 9500 crore on which work has started; package II, III and IV of Delhi-Meerut Expressway costing Rs 5900 Crore,; 4 laning of 124 km Khekra – EPE junction to Shamli-Saharanpur (NH-709 B) at a cost of about Rs 1200 Crore; Rangpuri Bypass to connect Dwarka/NH-08 with Vasant Kunj-Nelson Mandela Road at a cost of Rs 1000 Crore,; 75 km Urban Extension Road (UER-2) third Ring Road for Delhi under Bharatmala to be developed at a cost of Rs 4000 Crore and the 31.3 km, 6-lane access controlled corridor from Akshardham NH24 Junction to EPE Junction on Baghpat Road at a cost of about Rs 2600 Crore.

(With Inputs from PIB)