The fifth phase of the Meerut-Delhi Expressway (MDE) at Khanpur village of the district inaugurated on Sunday.
The national highway authority of India (NHAI) will construct the 14-km long road to connect the Expressway to Hapur road in Meerut. Presently, the E-way has connectivity through Delhi road, and a large population of Shastri Nagar, Jagriti Vihar, Saket and commuters from Bijnor, Pauri area take a longer route to reach MDE.
Aggarwal said that it was a long pending demand to connect E-way to Hapur road to provide easy access to the population residing in localities away from Delhi road and commuters from Bijnor and adjoining areas.
The 14-km stretch would start from Khanpur village of district Meerut and connect the Expressway at Jainuddinpur of district Ghaziabad. Land of farmers from 10 villages, including three villages of Ghaziabad, has been acquired for construction.
A group of farmers, however, complained about getting different rates of compensation against the acquired land with MP Aggarwal and asked him to help in resolving the issue. They said that they met the officials many times in this regard, but nothing happened.
MP Rajendra Agarwal said that he has directed the NHAI officials to look into the matter and complete the project within the deadline of 2024.
The 74km long MDE was opened for traffic last year, and NHAI started collecting tolls on it starting April 1, this year. In the previous four phases, E-way was constructed between Sarai Kale Khan in Delhi to Partapur in Meerut, and it reduced travel time to just 45 minutes for commuters. Earlier, commuters had to take NH-58 from Meerut to reach Delhi, with an average travel time of three hours or more.