(This story originally appeared in on Aug 14, 2017)

NEW DELHI: In its bid to decongest the Delhi-Gurgaon stretch of NH-8 , the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) has prepared a plan to complete a slew of projects with an investment of at least Rs 8,000 crore in the next three years, including the Dwarka Expressway The expressway, aimed at reducing traffic load on the highway, will take off from Shiv Murti in Mahipalpur and join NH-8 near Kherki Dhaula. Highways minister Nitin Gadkari is scheduled to inaugurate three projects on Monday and lay foundation stone for two more. A couple of projects are set to be completed by March next year. NHAI officials said bids for improvement of Gurgaon-Badshahpur - six-lane highway with service roads - have been invited and it will require Rs 1,700 crore investment. The 4.75 km section between Subhash Chowk and Badshahpur will be elevated.The other major project is building of Dwarka Expressway. The 28-km stretch project has been divided into four packages. Work on all packages will start by March 2018 and it will take a maximum of three years for their completion.All these projects were supposed to be completed by now to decongest the expressway. Failure of successive governments in Delhi and Haryana resulted in unmanageable traffic coming onto the expressway, causing congestion."Proving alternative connectivity, including the Dwarka Expressway and two urban extension roads, were part of the Master Plan when the Gurgaon expressway was built. Since these roads did not come up in time, the expressway got overcrowded and now during peak hours it works like any other city road," said an official, who was involved in the development of Gurgaon Expressway.The NHAI work plan also includes building a bypass to Rangpuri to connect Dwarka and NH-8 with Vasant Kunj through Nelson Mandela Marg. "The feasibility study is underway and the work is likely to be awarded by January," an NHAI official said. For over a decade, there have been plans to build three new road links between Delhi and Gurgaon to decongest both Gurgaon Expressway and MG road. While the plan on Dwarka and Gurgaon link is ready to take off, there is no sign of work starting on the road between Vasant Kunj and DLF-II. The oother link from MG Road to Gurgaon-Faridabad Road has also made no progress, though both the states and Delhi Development Authority have held several rounds of talks.