Final structure on Delhi Meerut Expressway to be completed in August

The National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) will shut three exits in Vijay Nagar area which have been in place for traffic movement between the highway and expressway lanes on the Delhi Meerut Expressway (DME). Officials on Tuesday said that the exits were in place to avoid traffic congestion due to the construction of a rail overbridge at Chipiyana near the Crossings Republik.

The rail overbridge will be the final structure on the DME and the construction is expected to be complete by mid-August. The construction required the placing of a heavy truss weighing about 2,300 tonnes and supported by a 1,100-tonne temporary structure to shape up the overbridge. The placing of the truss led to heavy traffic snarls, officials said.

“The placing of the truss is complete and now we are in the process of removing the supporting temporary structure. It is expected that two additional lanes will be made available for traffic in the next two to three days and this will ease the traffic situation. Once the rail overbridge is complete, we will close down three exit points between the expressway and highway lanes. This will ensure hassle-free movement of traffic,” said Puneet Khanna, manager (technical), NHAI.

The overbridge will have 16 lanes. According to officials, Ghaziabad to Delhi side of the overbridge has only six lanes in operation at present, while Delhi to Ghaziabad side has six lanes constructed, but only four are available for traffic movement.

They added that the two lanes are used by NHAI for movement of vehicles involved in the construction of the overbridge. The authority is likely to free up these two lanes by July 13, officials said.

The DME consists of 14 lanes and has three inner lanes on each side as expressway lanes, which have only six authorised entry/exit points on the entire 60-kilometre route from Delhi and Meerut. The four outer lanes each side are highway lanes.

Commuters are charged on the basis of per kilometre of distance travelled on the expressway lanes. The toll is charged on the basis of entry/exit of vehicles whose registration plates are read by automatic number plate readers, which calculate the distance travelled on the expressway.

As a result of the three cuts, there are issues in toll collection when vehicles make entry into the expressway lanes from the highway lanes near Vijay Nagar.