Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday inaugurated two newly built Delhi-Meerut Expressway and Eastern Peripheral Expressway (EPE) and embarked on a roadshow in an open SUV to mark the occasion.
After travelling for six kilometres on the stretch, Modi flew to Baghpat to inaugurate India’s first smart and green highway, The 135-km-long EPE which is estimated at a budget of Rs. 11,000 crore rupees.
The EPE built in a record time of nearly 500 days against a target of 910 days, Said Union Minister. It has eight solar power plants having a capacity of 4000-kilo watt (4 MW).
The Delhi-Meerut Expressway is the India’s first 14-lane highway and Road to freedom from pollution. For its construction, the Eastern Peripheral Expressway consumed 5 lakh tonne of cement and 1 lakh tonne of steel.
Eastern Peripheral Expressway is 135 kilometers long. Starting from Kundli, it connects Bagpat, Ghaziabad, Greater Noida of UP and Faridabad and Palwal of Haryana. Now this journey will be completed in 72 minutes instead of 4 hours.
ईस्टर्न पेरिफेरल अपने आप में देश का पहला एक्सिस कंट्रोल ग्रीन फ़ील्ड एक्सप्रेस-वे है। इससे दिल्ली का 27% वाहन प्रदूषण कम होगा और दिल्ली का आधा ट्रैफिक घटेगा।#PragatiKaHighway pic.twitter.com/dBbK7QRm6x
— Nitin Gadkari (@nitin_gadkari) May 25, 2018
“If people from Himachal Pradesh want to visit Uttar Pradesh or someone from Rajasthan wants to visit Himachal Pradesh, they can now go to that place directly. They do not need to enter Delhi,” Gadkari had said.
The number of trucks turned away on Sunday night was a third of the 1.5 lakh heavy vehicles that normally enter Delhi through the eastern border. Authorities said the diversion of such a large number of vehicles will lead to a discernable drop in the city’s air pollution levels during the course of this week.
