NEW DELHI: Something is changing in and around the capital. It is fast becoming the most dominant flower around which a bouquet of massive, state-of-the-art highways is being created in the NCR.
Once completed, it will turn the city into an island, which is connected to the national grid of roads while maintaining its infrastructural and access autonomy.
At the heart of this transformation lies one of the largest road infrastructure overhauls in the country, which is aimed at easing chronic traffic congestion in and around Delhi. The Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MoRTH), as the anchor ministry behind the overhaul, is executing a multilayered strategy involving completed, ongoing, and upcoming national highway projects designed to transform mobility in the region.
It is a massive 2,320 km plan, involving Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Punjab, Uttarakhand, and Jammu and Kashmir. The MoRTH data shows that it has already achieved 69 per cent completion.
A need for scale
The MoRTH ministry says the government has already completed planned road development work spanning 1,578 km, which were delivered at a cost of Rs 63,934 crore, while the projects that have been awarded to implementing agencies and are in various stages of completion cover 594 km, worth Rs 34,589 crore.
Moreover, the government is planning to execute projects for another 128 km, which will cost around Rs 23,850 crore.
At Delhi Dialogues, Union Minister of State for the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways and Ministry of Corporate Affairs Harsh Malhotra said that the capital region witnessed unprecedented highway development in the past decade, whose momentum would continue to grow with several more key corridors progressing toward completion.
He says, “The ministry has been consistently working to make the national capital and its adjoining areas congestion free. A proper plan has been chalked out, and it is being executed accordingly. Lots of projects have been executed over a decade, and many more are in the pipeline. In the near future, the entire region will have an augmented network of road infrastructure, which will help to remove traffic deadlocks.”
Malhotra said the success of Eastern Peripheral Expressway (EPE) among the completed projects at the top of the list. This 135 km project was one of the first completed decongestion plans for the capital. Conceptualised at an investment of Rs 12,000 crore, it keeps around 95,000 passenger cars away from the Delhi borders every day.
It picks traffic from key urban nodes in the NCR, like Kundli, Ghaziabad, Dadri, Greater Noida, and Palwal, and connects them to the Delhi-Chandigarh highway away from the national capital in Haryana. Along with the Western Peripheral Expressway, it forms a ring of mobility that considerably eases congestion within Delhi’s core.
West side
Within the city, the Centre has created a decongestion plan by markedly improving existing roads through widening, constructing flyovers and grade separators, creating signal-free options for long stretches, and circular U-turns. One such stretch on the western side of Delhi is between Dhaula Kuan and Gurugram, which is one of the most critical arterial connections for Delhi and is vital to the economy of both the cities as it connects the capital to a major IT and outsourcing hub. Developed at a cost of Rs 373 crore, this stretch is a lifeline for traffic destined for Jaipur, Dwarka, Gurugram, and the IGI Airport in either direction.
This stretch relieves drivers’ pain at choke points such as Hero Honda Chowk, Rajiv Chowk, Signature Tower, and IFFCO Chowk along NH 48. The NH 48 bypass road of the Delhi-Gurugram Expressway is designed to improve connectivity between IGI Airport and UER-II, Gurugram and Dwarka.
The proposed 5 km road tunnel starting from Dwarka Motorway to Nelson Mandela Marg, Vasant Kunj, aims to link Central and East Delhi with the Delhi–Katra Motorway (NE 5), NH 44, NH 10, the Delhi-Jaipur Highway (NH 48) and the Delhi–Dehradun Motorway (NH 709B) via UER II and the Dwarka Motorway.
Northern heights
There is a renewed push to upgrade Delhi’s northern national highway, NH 44, which was earlier called NH 1 to global standards. Through this highway, the travel between Delhi and Haryana has been transformed with the completion of the 70 km Delhi-Panipat corridor, which has been built at a cost of Rs 2,205 crore. Its 11 flyovers have a combined elevated length of 24 km. Its upgraded eight-lane stretch reduces travel time to Panipat by almost an hour from city centres.
The 76-km Urban Extension Road II (UER II), conceived under the Delhi Master Plan 2021 is built at a cost of Rs 8,000 crore. With 95 per cent work done already, it is slated to be the Capital’s third Ring Road. UER II was later notified as a national highway and executed across five packages.Once operational, the corridor will offer faster connectivity between Chandigarh and Gurugram or IGI Airport decongesting underdeveloped belts such as Najafgarh, Mundka, Karala, Alipur and Bawana.
Set to become a key motorway link connecting UER-II, Dwarka Motorway and the Delhi-Mumbai Motorway, the proposed extension of the Delhi-Amritsar-Katra Motorway (NE 5) from KMPE till Urban Extension Road II (NH 344M) and Haryana is a 20 km highway, estimated to cost Rs 4,000 crore.
The upcoming extension of Urban Extension Road II (NH 344M) near Alipur till Delhi-Dehradun Expressway (NH 709B) near Tronica City will act as bypass to NH 44/Outer/Inner Ring Road.
Rising in the east
Another significant highway that leaves the city and takes crowds along is on the eastern side that has changed people’s impression of what lay across the Yamuna both within the city as well as beyond its borders. The fully built Akshardham-EPE segment of the soon-to-be-commissioned Delhi-Dehradun Expressway has added another vital, and much needed, layer of connectivity to the traffic going towards Noida, Ghaziabad, and to the Uttarakhand hills. This saves travellers crucial 25 kilometres from the earlier routes, which translates into about an hour of saved time in the NCR .
Put together, these projects are not just about the roads; they reflect a strategic reshaping of mobility in northern India. Reducing the travel time between Delhi and Meerut to approximately 45 minutes compared to the previous 2.5 hours, the expressway (NE 3) passes through key areas including Akshardham, Ghazipur, Ghaziabad, Dasna, Pilakhua, Hapur. The project is 92 per cent complete, say officials.
The 65 km Eastern Extension of Urban Extension Road II from the Delhi-Dehradun Motorway to Noida via the Ghaziabad/Faridabad project, estimated at Rs 7,500 crore, will link several major corridors,
including the Delhi-Dehradun Motorway (NH 709B), the Delhi-Meerut Motorway (NE 03), the Noida-Greater Noida Motorway, the DND-Faridabad highway and the Yamuna Motorway.
South pool
NH-148A DND Interchange Kalandikunj-Faridabad-Ballabgarh-Sohna project connecting DND Flyover to Sohna, across Faridabad, Ballabgarh, and NH 19 has benefitted previously undeveloped areas like Kalindi Kunj, Jaitpur, Mithapur, Badarpur, Ballabgarh by improving connectivity and stimulating economic growth.
Additionally, the Jewar International Airport link road spanning across 32 km is integrated at Ballabgarh. The traffic congestion on NH 2 and NH 48 has significantly reduced providing direct connectivity to cities like Jaipur, Mumbai, and Kolkata from North/East Delhi, Noida, and Ghaziabad. The project is likely to be completed by September 2025 after construction of Arch bridge over Agra Canal.
The proposed elevated corridor from AIIMS to Mahipalpur Bypass with further extension to Gurgaon- Faridabad Road will help divert traffic from Gurgaon to Ghaziabad, Noida, Greater Noida from NH 48.
The construction of the interchange at the Kalindi Kunj intersection of the Delhi-Noida road and Agra Canal Road near Okhla Barrage, estimated at Rs 500 crore, aims to resolve chronic traffic bottlenecks around the Kalindi Kunj metro station and the Delhi-Noida-Faridabad corridor.
The road ahead
With more than 1,578 km of completed highways, 594 km under construction, and over 125 kilometres planned, the NCR is undergoing the most extensive highway modernisation in its history. Meanwhile, the NHAI has assumed responsibility for three key stretches from the Delhi government to improve traffic flow and accelerate upgrade works.
Union minister Harsh Malhotra has emphasised that this integrated approach is expected to fundamentally change mobility patterns in the capital region over the coming years.
Infrastructure expansion
With the completion of Centre’s several ongoing and upcoming national highway projects, mobility in and around the capital will get seamless as the travel time is likely to get reduced drastically easing congestion on roads and improving commuters’ travel experience.