Delhi-Dehradun Expressway: Gadkari Unveils Detailed Design And Timeline For Under-construction Project That Will Cut Travel Time By 4 Hours

The under-construction Delhi-Saharanpur-Dehradun Economic corridor, will reduce the distance between the two cities from 235 kms to 210 kms, and compress the travel time from 6.5 hours as of now, to just 2.5 hours, once it is completed.

The expressway will have a total 25 kilometres of elevated road - 6 kilometres in open, 14 in tunnels. The six-lane highway will pass through pristine forest areas.

The entire corridor is designed for driving with a minimum 100 Kmph speed.

12-kms long elevated corridor for protection of wildlife

Delhi--Dehradun expressway will be the country’s first highway where there will be a 12-kms long elevated corridor for protection of wildlife and enable unhindered movement of animals. The corridor will be build under EPC (Engineering, procurement and construction) mode.

Amenities

Wayside amenities every 25-30 km have been provisioned for enhancing the road user experience. Closed toll mechanism would be adopted to enable pay toll only to the extent of highway used.

The expressway-based corridor is expected to boost the economy of the region being served by the highway, especially boosting the tourism in Uttarakhand.

Implementation Timeline

For implementation, the entire length from Akshardham near Delhi (starting point) to Dehradunwill be divided into 4 sections :

Section 1 is being developed to 6 lanes with 6L service road being in built up reach, with complete access control and is divided into 2 packages.

Pkg 1 falls in Delhi portion in 14.75 km and out of this 6.4 km is elevated. Pkg 2 falls in UP in length of 16.85 km and out this 11.2 km is elevated.

The tendering process for these two packages have been completed. This section would start from Akshardham Temple near DME and pass through Geeta colony, Khajurikhas, Mandola, etc. This highway also aims to decongest the North East Delhi and also enhance the development potential of Tronica city, Mandola Vihar Yojana of UP Government.

Section 2 is planned 6 lane fully access controlled and the entire length is Greenfield, passing through districts of Baghpat, Shamli, Muzaffarnagar and Saharanpur. The DPR is complete and tendering process has been initiated in four packages. Land acquisition process in going on and Forest/Environment clearance proposal have been applied. Target for project award is March 2021, subject to obtaining environment clearance and substantial land acquisition is in place.

Section 3: starts from Saharanpur bypass and ends at Ganeshpur. The entire length has recently completed to 4 lanes by NHAI. Necessary underpasses and service road are being planned to make it fully access controlled to achieve minimum 100 kmph speed.

Section 4 is planned 6 lane with complete access controlled. This section primarily passes through Reserve Forest in the State of Uttar Pradesh & Uttarakhand. Out of 20 km, 5 km is brownfield expansion, and 15 km is realignment comprising of elevated wild life corridor(12 km) and approaches to tunnel(structure 340m). ROW is restricted to 25m in general due to Wildlife concerns. Forest and Wildlife clearances have been obtained. The bids in 3 packages have been received and under evaluation. Target is to award the project by March 2021.