Far-flung emerging residential destinations like Dharuhera, Bhiwadi, and Faridabad are set to get high-speed road corridors, which will reduce travel time to Delhi drastically, says

Monika Saini

In the next few years, owning a house in the suburbs of Delhi is going to be as good as living in Delhi. Though upcoming residential hubs beyond Noida, Dharuhera, Bhiwadi, Indirapuram, Faridabad, and Sonepat, sound remote now, considering their distance from the national capital, a slew of improved highways and the Metro connectivity is set change this perception and make these localities more attractive for buyers. Town planners also believe the time has come when residential development has to move away from Delhi.

“So far, the alternate residential development has happened around Delhi, which is known as ribbon development. But to make the capital city sustainable you need to provide more affordable options to people outside Delhi. A good transport system, primarily rail, will make the system sustainable,” says H R Suri, former president of Institute of Town Planners, India.

While, Metro Rail and improved rail connectivity is yet to happen, the currently far-flung emerging residential destinations are set to get highspeed road corridors, which will reduce the travel time drastically. “The focus of all expansion and widening of national highways starting and terminating in Delhi is to make them signalfree by eliminating traffic bottlenecks. Until there is seamless connectivity to key facilities in the capital from suburbs, decongesting Delhi will only remain a dream. The highway development work will redefine growth story of areas along the road network,” says a senior official of National Highways Authority of India (NHAI).

It’s not just the highway regulator; even the timely push for completion of road infrastructure projects ahead of the Commonwealth Games by Delhi is going to improve connectivity to areas like Faridabad, Noida and Greater Noida in the next one and half years.

Delhi-Meerut Expressway   

This proposed 61-km long expressway will change the development along the corridor and is one of the priorities of the highway regulator. The NHAI has already finalized alignment, and feasibility study will be over soon. Officials claim once completed, the travel-time between Delhi and Meerut may be reduced to approximately 45 minutes, from the usual two hours.

Officials say those commuting between Delhi and Ghaziabad, Indirapuram (NH-24) will benefit the most from this project. According to the proposal, the existing stretch in Delhi, which is being widened to eight lanes, would subsequently be converted to 16 lanes, letting commuters zip through the congested corridor during peak hours. A part of NH-24 — from Delhi to Dasna in Ghaziabad, will form onethird of the expressway.

NHAI sources said eight more lanes would be added to the under-construction eight-lane grade separator at Ghazipur crossing. Delhi PWD has set April 2010 as deadline for completing the Ghazipur project.

Delhi-Jaipur corridor   

With the Delhi-Gurgaon stretch of NH-8 converted to an eight-lane access control highways, Haryana’s financial capital has become the preferred residential destination. While the housing-friendly policies of the state government have pushed growth of Manesar and Dharuhera, what is going to accelerate their growth is the strengthening of Gurgaon-Jaipur stretch. The widening of the Gurgaon-Jaipur expressway from the existing four lanes to six lanes has already started, and once completed, it will make the stretch between Delhi and Jaipur signal-free. The project is expected to be completed by June 2011. Haryana government has already made an announcement to push for extending Delhi Metro service to industrial township of Manesar.

Delhi-Sonepat corridor   

Although this is one of the finest corridor for commuters and has been in the top-list of developers, the approximately 13-km bottleneck between Mukarba Chowk and Sanghu border has been the major roadblock. NHAI officials said the tender to complete the remaining work has been awarded recently and it will be completed ahead of the games. “This stretch has been an eyesore for the past eight years. Once completed, the connectivity to Sonepat will improve significantly. Since there is a provision to reward the contractor in case he completes the work early, we are hopeful the stretch will improve before the stipulated time frame,” a senior NHAI official said.

The much delayed Kundli-Manesar-Palwal (KMP) Expressway connecting NH-2, NH-8, NH-10 and NH-1 is now expected to be completely operational by October next year, which will improve the non-stop connectivity from Kundli in Sonepat to Gurgaon and Faridabad. “We have extended the deadline up to December 2010. But the developer has made commitment to complete it by the Commonwealth Games,” a senior official of Haryana State Industrial and Infrastructure Development Corporation said.

Significantly, some of the residential and commercial developments in Sonepat are largely dependent on this 135-km high-speed corridor.

UP Link Road

Yet another improvement of road network — the 3.4-km UP Link Road — connecting Akshardham temple to Noida, is expected to bring major relief to Noida-bound traffic, making commuting between Shantivan and Greater Noida almost signal-free, barring one red light.

The ambitious Delhi government project to be completed before the games includes addition of one lane each on the sides, besides construction of one single carriageway and one double carriageway flyovers on three traffic intersections to make movement signal-free. While the first flyover with a single carriageway would cover the stretch at Mayur Vihar Phase I red light, the second flyover with dual carriageway will do away with two traffic red lights — one at Samachar Apartments Chowk and another near the Delhi-Noida-Delhi toll road.

Faridabad Stretch (NH-2)   

Faridabad, the other emerging within-reach residential destination, is now set to get seamless connectivity with Delhi. After several delays, the ambitious 6-lane elevated-corridor project covering the congested stretch of Badarpur has taken off.

According to NHAI officials, the Rs 340-crore project is expected to be completed by September 2010. The non-stop link starts from near NTPC, Badarpur and ends near Sector-37 crossing in Faridabad. The entire elevated corridor has five major intersections (two in Delhi and three in Haryana), namely, NTPC junction, Sarai junction, Jaitpur junction, Mehrauli junction and Sector-37 junction.

Courtesy:- TOI dt:- 15-08-09