Government approves construction of expressways

The government has approved a plan for constructing 1,000 kilometres of expressways under NHDP Phase-VI. These include sections of high-density corridors of Vadodara-Mumbai (400 km), Delhi-Meerut (66 km), Bangalore-Chennai (334 km), Delhi-Jaipur (261 km), Delhi-Chandigarh (249 km), Kolkata-Dhanbad (227 km) and Delhi-Agra (200 km). 
 
The Ministry of Road Transport and Highways has also given in-principle approval to carry out a feasibility study for development of expressways of other corridors such as Delhi-Ludhiana-Amritsar-Katra expressway (Delhi-Chandigarh expressway modified as Delhi-Ludhiana-Amritsar-Katra expressway), Hyderabad-Vijayawada-Amravathi expressway, Nagpur-Hyderabad-Bangalore expressway, Kanpur-Lucknow expressway and ring road-expressway at Amravathi.
 
In addition, the government has approved the eastern peripheral expressway (135 km) outside Delhi. Presently, the works for Delhi-Meerut expressway (three packages out of four packages) and eastern peripheral expressway (six packages) are in execution stage with awarded civil works worth Rs 3,888 crore and Rs 4,418 crore respectively. The main criterion for selection of expressway corridors is the traffic volume.