Gadkari dedicates Meerut-Delhi Expressway to public

The second and fourth phases of Meerut-Delhi Expressway (MDE) was thrown open to public on Thursday by Union minister Nitin Gadkari.

The expressway cuts the travel time between Delhi and Meerut to just 45 minutes from the earlier two-and-a-half hours.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi had laid down the foundation stone of MDE in 2016 and its two phases (Sarai Kale Khan in Delhi to UP gate and Dasna to Hapur) were inaugurated earlier while the 2nd (UP gate to Dasna) and 4th phase (Dasna to Meerut) were thrown open to public on Thursday. The toll collection on the MDE would start from December 25.

The Delhi-Meerut Expressway has a total length of 96km and comprises 14 lanes. The route has been divided into four phases; while the first phase connects Akshardham in the national capital to UP gate, the second is between UP gate and Dasna. The third and fourth are between Dasna and Hapur, and Dasna and Meerut, respectively.

“The expressway would help in development of the area,” the road transport and highways minister said.

The Union minister said Meerut was a land of bravehearts and he feels happy to visit the place.

He also recalled the contribution of former Prime Minister Ch Charan Singh for farmers’ community and reiterated that soon farmers would be known as ‘Urjadaata’ as government was working on making ethanol as alternative fuel for vehicles which is produced from sugarcane and rice.

Accompanied by Union minister Gen V K Singh and deputy chief minister Keshav Prasad Maurya, Gadkari also inaugurated country’s first automatic number plate reading system installed at Kashi toll plaza of MDE and intelligent traffic management system at Eastern Peripheral Expressway. This technique is being used first time in the country.

The intelligent traffic management system is a revolutionary state-of-the-art technology that will help in minimizing traffic problems, prompting efficient infrastructure usage, enriching users with prior information about traffic and reducing travel time as well as enhancing safety and comfort of commuters.

Addressing a gathering during a function organised at Subharti University ground here, Gadkari said “Construction of 1700 km roads in western UP was completed by spending ₹42,000 crore. Also, projects worth ₹1 lakh crore are at the stage of detailed project reports. We are currently doing work worth ₹4 lakh crore in UP hence will spent ₹5 lakh crore in UP in coming 5 years.”

Earlier in the day, Gadkari along with Singh inspected under construction railway overbride at Chipiyana village in Ghaziabad and also made a brief stop at Kashi toll plaza.