Construction on NH-709B to begin next month, announced BJP MP Manoj Tiwari. The 155-km-long National Highway 709B is a six-lane project passing through East and Northeast Delhi’s several areas. The corridor will start from Delhi’s Akshardham Mandir and end at Saharanpur in Uttar Pradesh. Once work on this highway is complete, it will reduce the travel time to the districts of UP and ease traffic flow in Delhi’s northeast areas such as New Usmanpur, Khajuri Khas, Pushta Road, Sonia Vihar Extension, West Karawal Nagar, and Bhajanpura. Tiwari was quoted saying in an IE report that the work was awarded last month in a fresh tender and the groundwork will start in the month of August. The project was delayed due to COVID-19 restrictions, however, they are hopeful to complete the highway by 2023, he said.
Tiwari further said that they have also requested for an AIIMS-like hospital on the highway stretch so that people can cut short journey time and benefit from the medical facility. The upcoming corridor is planned to be developed around the Noida Link Road and Marginal Bund Road (Pushta Road) in the national capital and Baghpat Road in UP. Northeast Delhi’s Pushta Road is the capital’s one of the most congested corridors as it links the city with the UP border and the Eastern Peripheral Expressway. The corridor has several unauthorized colonies as well as slum clusters on the road’s both sides, leading to traffic jams for most of the day.
The Delhi-Akshardham-Geeta Colony-Shastri Park-Khajuri Khas-Delhi-UP border portion is 14.75 kilometre long and it includes an elevated stretch of 7 kilometres. This stretch costs an amount of Rs 1,375.56 crore. In Uttar Pradesh, it will pass through Welcome city, Ankur Vihar and Indrapuri before ending at Pooja Pusta Police Chowki, located in Loni.
Earlier, in a bid to decongest Delhi and Ghaziabad city, the Road Transport and Highways Ministry and the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) had given financial approval for the corridor. When the project was approved, Union Minister Nitin Gadkari had said in a letter to Tiwari that from Akshardham in Delhi to the intersection of Eastern Peripheral Expressway, there is a provision for 19 kilometres of elevated section which would help in diminishing land acquisition as well as segregation of local traffic.
