Towns await prosperity amid attempts for infra glory on key expressway

Record bituminous concrete laying on Ghaziabad-Aligarh e-way speeds up road revamp

On the contours of the newly-widened, jet black layer of concrete on the highway, vendors and small shops go on about their day in the scorching May heat.

"This road used to be terrible earlier," a truck driver quips. "Barely any lane space, frequent traffic jams and potholes all around."

The Ghaziabad-Aligarh Expressway, touted by Union minister Nitin Gadkari as the key to unlocking the region's trade and commerce, is currently being widened from existing four lanes to six lanes.

Over the past four days, the stretch on the outskirts of Bulandshahr has been a site of rigorous work, amid a successful attempt to lay bituminous concrete over 100 lane kilometres of the highway in 100 hours — an effort that gained concessionaire Cube Highways and their construction partner Larsen & Toubro plaudits from the ministry of road transport and highways.

"The Ghaziabad-Aligarh section of NH34, spanning 118 kilometers, plays a vital role as a transportation link between the densely populated regions of Ghaziabad and Aligarh. This project traverses various towns and cities in Uttar Pradesh, including Dadri, Gautam Buddh Nagar, Sikandrabad, Bulandshahr, and Khurja," highways minister Gadkari said.

"A notable accomplishment on a very important highway route. It manifests the importance given to both speed and embracing modern methods for better infrastructure," Prime Minister Narendra Modi wrote on social media, after the two companies were felicitated by the India Book of Records.

Cold Central Plant Recycling (CCPR) technology was used in revitalising the highway, where 90 per cent of the materials milled during the planing of the road were reused in the process.

"Work was happening in mission mode with materials being transported from Indian Oil's facility in Mathura constantly for this record to be achieved," an on-site engineer and company executive said.

The expressway was earlier a sore point for both passenger and commercial riders. The recent widening and layering work has proven to be a window of opportunity for small businesses in the area, who hope that the renewed road will bring prosperity.

"Since the highway was in a bad condition earlier, there wasn't the kind of economic activity that you'd see on a more prominent highway like Delhi-Chandigarh. Moreover, parts of the highway are also new alignments, while businesses are still on the old alignment," a senior Cube Highway executive said.

Small businesses along the highway aren't aplenty, with very few legacy establishments operating now. Most establishments have been recently constructed, in the hopes of a consumption boom.

"We have to complete these works by November, for which we have to lay most of the groundwork in the coming months itself. Once traffic increases due to the six-laning, we will see increased economic activity along the highway," Harikishan Reddy, CEO of Cube Highways, told Business Standard.

Meanwhile, work over the past year has pushed small businesses into more struggle, as construction work leads to lesser traffic. While the highway overhaul is eagerly anticipated by many, on the flipside, some vendors aren't too hopeful.

"With traffic moving at a moderate pace, people would stop by at small shops and tea stalls like ours. When a highway achieves high speed, people only stop at big clusters of wayside amenities. It's usually bad news for small establishments like us," the owner of Shiva Tourist Dhaba said.