The Eastern Peripheral Expressway (EPE) project to decongest Delhi will be completed in March 2018, Parliament was informed today.
The project on completion will become India's first 135 km green road to be lit entirely by solar panels with advanced traffic system.
"The scheduled date of completion of EPE is March 2018 and the awarded cost of civil works is Rs 4,418 crore," Minister of State for Road Transport and Highways Pon Radhakrishnan told the Lok Sabha in a written reply.
The project, which commenced in May last year, will consume a million tonnes of flyash from NTPC's various thermal plants to utilise waste and minimise pollution.
"Construction of the EPE...Would facilitate hassle free movement of non-Delhi bound traffic from the neighbouring states hence contributing to reduction in pollution and decongestion in Delhi," Radhakrishnan said.
On completion, the Rs 5,763 crore greenfield project that had hit several road blocks and saw laying of its foundation by Prime Minster Narendra Modi in November 2015, will divert around 2 lakh vehicles passing through the national capital daily to this bypass, curtailing pollution.
The expressway passes through Sonipat, Bagpat, Ghaziabad, Gautam Budh Nagar, Faridabad and Palwal in Haryana and Uttar Pradesh, and the proposed alignment crosses river Yamuna at Khurrampur/Khata in UP and Faizpur Khadar in Haryana and crosses the river Hindon.
The Supreme Court earlier has directed police chiefs of Uttar Pradesh and Haryana to provide security for expeditious completion of the project in light of attempts by miscreants to obstruct the work.
The project work has been divided into six packages - 21-km stretch in Sonepat-Baghpat, 24.5 km stretch in Baghpat- Ghaziabad, 24.5-km stretch in Ghaziabad-GB Nagar, 22-km stretch in GN Nagar, 21-km stretch in GN Nagar-Faridabad and 22-km stretch in Faridabad-Palwal.
There are a total of 390 structures in this project out of which two major bridges are on river Yamuna and one major bridge on river Hindon and Agra Canal.
Besides there are 8 interchanges, 4 flyovers, 71 vehicle underpasses, 6 RoBs (Road over Bridges) etc.
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