Commuters travelling on the Delhi-Meerut Expressway (DME) will soon be able to seamlessly move on to NH-235 from Meerut to Hapur and Bulandshahr as the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) plans to link the two stretches with a 14.6km four-lane highway.
The NHAI officials said the agency for building the connecting highway has been selected and a letter of acceptance has also been issued for the work, which is estimated to cost about ₹ 309 crore.
The road is expected to be ready in two years, the NHAI said.The 60km DME connects Delhi to Meerut, while the 62km NH-235, which was made operational last year, connects Meerut with Hapur and Bulandshahr.
The NHAI officials said the link road will start about eight kilometres before the Kashi toll plaza (under phase 4 of the DME) in Meerut and this will connect further to NH-235 near the Meerut-Hapur Road. The agency for the work has been selected and, after completion of some document formalities, it is likely that the work will start from December or January 2022,’ said Arvind Kumar, deputy general manager, NHAI.
‘Both sides of the 14.6km link road will be joined by loops which will help ease the flow of traffic between the DME and NH-235,’ he further said.
Officials also said the new link will be four-laned and is likely to be ready in two years.
‘Commuters will further benefit as there is a plan to link DME to the proposed Ganga Expressway, six-lane access-controlled expressway that has been proposed to connect Meerut and Prayagraj. In this regard, we have written to the state government to build another 3km link road — the 14.6km link will connect the DME to NH-235 and the 3km extension branch of the road will further connect to the Ganga Expressway. Essentially, this will link the two expressways,’ said another officer from NHAI, asking not to be named.
The officials said once the plans are finalised, commuters of DME and NH-235 will be able to get expressway connectivity to areas such as Kanpur and Prayagraj over a distance of about 1,020km and will considerably improve connectivity between western and eastern Uttar Pradesh.