delhi

Updated: Nov 06, 2015 15:53 IST

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday laid the foundation stone of three highway projects, including the Western and Eastern Peripheral Expressways which are expected to decongest Delhi of unwanted trucks and help improve its air quality.

The three projects, which will cost the Centre Rs 13,802 crore, includes the eight-laning of a chunk of the highway from Mukarba Chowk in Delhi to Panipat.

The 136-km Kundli-Manesar-Palwal (KMP) Expressway, also known as the Western Peripheral Expressway, will provide a high-speed link to northern Haryana with its southern districts like Gurgaon, Faridabad and Palwal.

The project -- spanning the five districts of Sonepat, Jhajjar, Gurgaon, Mewat and Palwal -- will help unclog Delhi as the traffic from the northern parts of the country destined to other regions need not pass through the Capital.

The other half of the project, the 135km Eastern Peripheral Expressway, is expected to be commissioned by July 2018. The National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) is executing the project under six packages.

Both the highways together will form a ring road around Delhi for heavy duty diesel-run trucks and other commercial vehicles that are among the heaviest contributors to Delhi’s pollution.

Modi after laying the foundation stone at the Rajiv Gandhi Education City in Sonepat criticised the previous governments for not taking required steps to improve the infrastructure of the country in the past 60 years. He said the focus of his government was primarily on boosting infrastructure.

The PM promised to bring electricity to every household of the country by 2022, when the country celebrates 75 years of independence.

Union minister for Road and Highways Nitin Gadkari said that construction of the new highways and expressways will help the people of Haryana, Delhi and Uttar Pradesh and reduce traffic jams in the national capital.