Road transport minister Nitin Gadkari on April 6, 2023, inspected the 212-km 6-lane Delhi-Dehradun expressway. The expressway is being built at a cost of Rs 12,000 crore, and will reduce the travel time between the two cities to 2 hours from the current over 5 hours. The project is likely to open for public in January 2024.
“Work on the Delhi-Dehradun Expressway project will be over by December end and from January 1 next year people will be travelling from Dehradun to Delhi in just two hours,” Gadkari said earlier.
Delhi-Dehradun Expressway amenities and facilities
Divided into four sections, the expressway is being constructed starting from the Delhi-Mumbai Expressway (DME) near Akshardham in Delhi, and would run along Shastri Park, Khajuri Khas, EPE interchange at Khekra in Mandola, Baghpat, Shamli, Saharanpur in Uttar Pradesh to Dehradun in Uttrakhand. A 340-metre-long 3-lane tunnel is also being constructed at Datkali, Dehradun, at a cost of Rs 1,995 crore.
Many special provisions have been made in the construction of the corridor. In these, a 20-km stretch from Ganeshpur to Dehradun is built with an aim to maintain the eco-sensitive zone of Raja Ji National Park. There is a provision of 12-km elevated road, 6 animal underpasses, 2 elephant underpasses, 2 major bridges and 13 minor bridges. 113 VUP (Vehicular Under Passes), LVUP (Light Vehicular Under Passes), SVUP (Small Vehicular Under Passes), 5 ROBs, 4 major bridges and 62 bus shelters are being constructed in the entire expressway. Along with this, apart from a 76-km service road, a 29-km elevated road, 16 entry-exit points are also being constructed.
For the convenience of passengers, there is a provision of 12 way-side amenities on the Delhi-Dehradun expressway. For connectivity of Haridwar with this highway, a 51- km 6-lane road is being constructed at a cost of Rs 2,095 crore.
