17-year long wait for Dwarka Expressway likely to delay further
Dwarka Expressway will have to extend their patience. According to officials from the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI), the final stages of work on the 18.9 km section of the expressway within the city's limits will now conclude in October, a delay from the earlier projected completion date of August, a TOI report stated.
The Dwarka Expressway is India's first elevated urban expressway.
The highway project was first envisioned by the Haryana government in 2006, but it was stalled due to legal and land acquisition concerns until 2016, when the Union government took over the project at the request of the state government, according to a senior NHAI official.
The recent shift in the completion timeline is attributed to NHAI's strategic efforts to integrate slip roads from the Central Peripheral Road (CPR) and Southern Peripheral Road (SPR) with the carriageways of NH-8, the main highway. This merging maneuver aims to streamline traffic flow and alleviate the congestion issues that were emerging due to incomplete road connections.
Originally, NHAI had linked the slip roads exclusively to NH-8's service lanes, without plans to merge traffic with the primary carriageways.
However, this approach led to mounting traffic chaos, as commuters from new sectors along the expressway were relying on the unfinished section to navigate between NH-8 and the expressway, resulting in congestion along the narrow service lanes.
Highlighting this concern, a safety audit report released earlier this year pinpointed the issue and suggested direct integration of the slip roads with the main carriageways for a more seamless traffic experience.
A senior NHAI official affirmed their commitment to the project's timely completion. «Although
