Delhi expressways get nod

After a long delay, the government finally cleared the way for awarding of Eastern Peripheral Expressway (EPE) that is aimed to reduce commercial traffic particularly trucks on city roads.
The cabinet clearance came a day after the public private partnership appraisal committee approved the Delhi-Meerut expressway project. Both the projects will have no traffic signal ensuring seamless drive on the stretches.
While the first project will work like a bypass for traffic coming from Punjab side and heading towards Nainital or Mathura and Kolkata, and vice-versa, the Meerut expressway will bring relief to lakhs of commuters between Delhi and Dasna. The first stage of the bidding process has been completed. In each case, five major companies or consortiums have put their technical bids.
“We have nearly 93% of the required land with us for EPE project. We will soon invite financial bids and are working to ensure that 100% land is available by the time the project is bagged by a private player,” said NHAI chief general manager B S Singla.
The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs cleared the project for bidding despite Planning Commission’s questioning on the need of a 6-lane stretch and to allow only 1.25 times the toll. The panel has been pushing that the toll on expressway should be 1.5 times higher than that of other highways. The project will cover Sonipat, Faridabad, Palwal, Baghpat, Gautam Budh Nagar and Ghaziabad.
In the case of Meerut expressway, the first 27.5 km portion between Delhi and Dasna will have 14 lanes. The six lanes for straight moving traffic will be barricaded while the rest eight lanes will be for local traffic. “We have about 77% of required land in our possession. We will soon invite financial bids,” Singla said. The stretch between Dasna and Meerut bypass will be a brand new 6-lane corridor. NHAI sources said five infrastructure measures namely IRB, IL&FS, Uniquest, joint venture of Srei Infra-OJL and Reliance have submitted their technical bids for EPE.
For Meerut e-way project, the bidders are - Srei Infra-OHL joint venture, a consortium of Tata Realty Infrastructure , Sadhav Engineering and Vinci Concessions, IL&FS, a consortium of Indus Concessions and Oriental Structural Engineers, and Uniquest Infra Ventures.