Delhi: Work on National Highway 709B to begin next month

Tiwari said: “Work was awarded in a fresh tender last month and the groundwork will start in August. It was delayed due to Covid restrictions, but we are hopeful to complete it by 2023.”

“We have also requested for an AIIMS-like hospital on the stretch so that people can cut short travel time and benefit from the facility,” he said.

The new corridor is planned around the Noida Link Road and Marginal Bund Road (Pushta Road) in Delhi and Baghpat Road in Uttar Pradesh.

Pushta Road in Northeast Delhi is one of the most congested corridors in the capital as it links Delhi with the Uttar Pradesh border and the Eastern Peripheral Expressway (EPE). The corridor has large number of unauthorised colonies and slum clusters on both sides of the road leading to heavy flow of vehicles, causing traffic jams for most of the day.

The portion in Delhi — Akshardham-Geeta Colony-Shastri Park-Khajuri Khas-Delhi-UP border — is 14.75-km-long and includes a 7-km elevated stretch. This stretch costs Rs 1,375.56 crore.

In UP, it will pass through Ankur Vihar, Welcome city, and Indrapuri before ending at Pooja Pusta Police Chowki in Loni.

The Union Ministry of Road Transport and Highways and the National Highways Authority of India had earlier given financial approval for the corridor to decongest Delhi and Ghaziabad city. “From Akshardham to the Eastern Peripheral Expressway (EPE) intersection, there is a provision for 19 km of elevated section which would help in diminishing acquisition of land and segregation of local traffic,” Union Transport Gadkari had said in a letter to Tiwari when the project was approved.