New Delhi: The government is spending Rs 7 lakh crore on building green express highways through modern technology which in turn would provide smart transportation and reduce pollution, Union Minister Nitin Gadkari said on Wednesday.
Of these, Rs 1 lakh crore Delhi-Mumbai Expressway is likely to be completed within a year while Delhi-Meerut Expressway will be inaugurated in a month or two, the Road Transport and Highways Minister said while addressing a virtual event organised by PHD Chamber of Commerce here.
He said these are being built with state-of-the-art technique with advanced engineering to provide intelligent traffic while taking care of ecology and environment conservation to reduce greenhouse emission.
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The Prime Minister has set a target of Rs 111 lakh crore under the National Infrastructure Pipeline and it would be the government's effort to adopt a green approach and "development without destruction," the minister said.
Of the 22 green highway corridors, Delhi-Mumbai Expressway on a new alignment would reduce the travel time between both the metropolises to 12 hours by car in comparison to 40 hours at present, he said.
"Sixty per cent of this 1,300 km project has been completed and we are trying to complete it within one year," the minister said adding that the first phase of the Delhi-Mumbai Expressway project will have 8 lanes while the second phase will have 12.
A separate electric highway lane will be constructed in it, he said and added that within a year electric trucks will be available.
Gadkari said work on the Delhi-Amritsar-Katra project is likely to start in two to three months and the pipeline is Rs 4,063 crore Delhi-Faridabad-Sohna express highway and Rs 4,000 crore Ahmedabad-Dholera highway.
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As far as Delhi is concerned, Gadkari said projects worth Rs 60,000 crore are being implemented to reduce air pollution in the national capital and said Rs 10,000 crore Dwarka-Express Highway is an "engineering marvel".
He said 50 per cent of work has been completed on the 30 km project that has one tunnel and flyovers.
Urban Extension Road-II (UER-II) project for Delhi has also been cleared, Gadkari said.
"Delhi-Meerut expressway will be inaugurated in next one to two months and it will reduce the travel time to Meerut from Delhi to 45 minutes from the present 4 hours," Gadkari said.
The minister said with the completion of the Delhi-Saharanpur-Dehradun project, the travel time between Delhi and Dehradun will reduce to two hours and "it is a promise, not a declaration".