New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday inaugurated the Eastern Peripheral Expressway and the first-phase of the Delhi-Meerut e-way, which is expected to cut down on the traffic choking the national capital.
Addressing supporters after launching the Eastern Peripheral Expressway in Uttar Pradesh’s Baghpat, Modi launched an all-out attack on the Congress.
“Four years ago, the government only built 12-km highways. But we have 27-km highways and multi-lane expressways to make life easier for the common man... We spent Rs 3 lakh crore in last three years to build 28,000-km highways," the PM said.
He also accused the Congress of mocking his government’s welfare schemes for Dalits and women. “The Congress and its allies always mock anything and everything that is being done for all the backward classes and tribal communities. They always act as obstacles."
He said that apart from Rs 5 lakh crore provision for Bharatmala for highways, a provision of Rs 14 lakh crore was made in the budget to strengthen agriculture related infrastructure.
Lauding Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, he said criminals in UP are now surrendering themselves. About the Ganga cleaning programme, Modi said more than 200 projects worth Rs 21,000 crore for have been taken up.
Earlier in the day, he inaugurated the first phase of the Rs 7,500-crore Delhi-Meerut Expressway that will reduce the travel time considerably.
Modi, after inaugurating the 14-lane highway spanning Sarai Kale Khan in Delhi to UP Gate, rode in an open car, waving at crowds gathered on either sides of the highway. Road Transport and Shipping Minister Nitin Gadkari too rode in a separate open car alongside Modi.
The roadshow started from Nizamuddin bridge, the start of the about 9-km first leg of the Delhi-Meerut Expressway. After a 6-km travel on the stretch, he flew to Baghpat to inaugurate the Eastern Peripheral Expressway.
The Delhi-Meerut Expressway built at a cost of Rs 841 crore has vertical gardens with solar panels on the Yamuna Bridge. This is the first bridge in the country/world that have vertical gardens with solar power system and drip irrigation.
A 2.5 metre wide cycle track has also been constructed on both the sides of this expressway, which also has provision of 1.5 metre footpath on each side for pedestrians.
The first package of the Delhi-Meerut Expressway will provide a major relief to the commuters in Delhi-Noida and starts from Nizamuddin Bridge to UP Border having a 6 lane Expressway & 4+4 lane Highway.
On completion of the entire expressway, the time to travel from Delhi to Meerut is expected to come down to 45 minutes from the present about 4-5 hours. The scheduled time period for the construction of this project was 30 months whereas the project has been completed in 17 months, Gadkari had told reports on Saturday.
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