Amaan Sadiq

Dehradun: Now the journey from Dehradun, the capital of Uttarakhand to Delhi is going to be easy. One can reach Delhi from Dehradun in just two and a half hours. The travel time between Delhi-Haridwar will be reduced from 5 to 2 hours. Work to complete this project is going on war footing. Many tasks have been successfully completed. It is being told that the construction work of the 3.60 km stretch on the Uttarakhand side of the expressway will be completed by March 2024. Apart from this, the entire project work is expected to be completed by September 2024. Under this scheme, the old road will be completely closed, on which wild animals will be able to roam. Traffic will operate on the new road. Under the Dehradun-Delhi Expressway scheme, a meeting of the Oversight Committee of the Supreme Court was held in FRI. In the meeting, the idea of opening the old road for wildlife and completely closing it for the movement of general public was put forward by the members. It is being told that this idea of the committee was passed unanimously. Under this, eco restoration work will be done on the old road. Where there will be zero human movement and wildlife will be able to move freely. Under this, to increase the greenery here,

pathways, pits, catchment dams etc. will be constructed, so that it can be completely transformed into a forest. This suggestion of the committee members was passed, but the final approval is yet to be given. Almost all the objections have been resolved in the meeting. This route will be the most pleasant and easy to go from Dehradun to Delhi and the mountains. Trains will reach not only Dehradun but also Chakrata and Uttarkashi districts before time. The work of the elevated road being built on its other side is also going on at a fast pace. The new expressway connecting Delhi and Dehradun will also pass through Ghaziabad, Baghpat, Baraut, Shamli, Saharanpur. It is being constructed in three phases. Both ends of the 340 meter long Datkali Tunnel, which forms part of Asia’s longest (12 km) wildlife corridor passing through Sadak Rajaji National Park, has been successfully opened. It is being told that the Delhi-Dehradun Green Field Economic Corridor was started in March 2021. In the first phase, a six-lane elevated road is to be constructed from Eastern Peripheral Expressway to Delhi. Whereas in the second phase, there will be interchanges at seven places to connect Haridwar, Muzaffarnagar, Shamli, Yamunanagar, Baghpat, Meerut and Baraut. For this expressway, six interchanges, four flyovers, six major bridges, 10 minor and two ROBs will also be built during the 51 km stretch till Haridwar. The distance of 235 km between Delhi and Dehradun will be reduced to 210 km by this highway but it will be so fast. It will mean that the journey time will take only 2.5 hours instead of 6.5 hours.

This route will have 25 kilometers of elevated road and 14 tunnels and this 6 lane route will pass through beautiful views of clean forests.
This entire expressway will be designed in such a way that the minimum speed of vehicles here remains 100 km per hour.
For the protection of wildlife, a 12 km elevated road is being built on this expressway, which is being done for the first time in the country. It is noteworthy that this project was approved after a lot of controversies. Now the wait is till when this expressway opens for the general public.