Gurgaon-Faridabad road widening on fast track

Come 2011, the drive on Faridabad-Gurgaon and Ballabhgarh-Sohna roads is set to become smoother. The Haryana government — which has awarded the work to widen and upgrade these two stretches — claims the project would be completed before the scheduled deadline of May 2011. Infrastructure major Reliance-Infra, which has been executing the two crucial road projects besides upgrading two link roads in the Faridabad municipal area, said it has already achieved financial closure for the work. A company spokesperson said, ‘‘It’s a design, engineering, finance, construction, operation and maintenance project. And designs for more than 60% of these roads are already complete.’’ After the project is complete, it would be easier to reach Faridabad from Gurgaon and the connectivity to Badkhal Lake, Surajkund Craft Fair, Damdama Lake, Sohna tourist complex and Sultanpur bird sanctuary will also improve. Haryana PWD has awarded the project on BOT-Toll basis at an estimated investment of Rs 180 crore. The project includes 4-laning of the 24.3km Gurgaon-Faridabad road — which has two lanes at present. Similarly, the 3km road along the crusher zone will be widened to four lanes. The existing Ballabhgarh-Sohna road, which has been in a dilapidated condition will be upgraded. The scope of work includes construction of 10 minor bridges and improvement of five major junctions. Commuters using Gurgaon-Faridabad, Ballabhgarh-Sohna and the crusher zone road will pay the toll. While the first stretch will have one toll plaza, the second stretch will have two. The crusher zone will have one plaza for toll collection. The stone crushers’ zone has about 140 stone crushers and heavily-loaded trucks carrying quarry material from these crushers have damaged the road severely. The project also includes four truck laybyes for parking of trucks. At present, the illegal parking of trucks on the narrow road sides makes the stretch accident-prone.