The Supreme Court on Thursday asked the National Highway Authority of India to inaugurate the Eastern Peripheral Expressway on or before May 31, reported PTI. “[We] can’t wait indefinitely for the prime minister [to inaugurate it],” said the court.
The expressway was initially supposed to be inaugurated by April 20. The NHAI counsel told the court that the Prime Minister’s Office cancelled the inauguration on April 29 because of Narendra Modi’s prior commitments. “Eastern expressway will be thrown open from June 1 even if the PM can’t inaugurate it by then,” said the bench of Justices Madan B Lokur and Deepak Gupta. “[It] won’t be in public interest to delay it further.”
The eastern expressway, a six-lane highway that connects Kundli to Palwal in Haryana via Ghaziabad in Uttar Pradesh, is likely to decongest Delhi by diverting around two lakh vehicles. Built at a cost of Rs 110 billion, it has solar power lighting and is equipped with intelligent highway traffic management systems, according to the Business Standard.
The expressway runs for 135 km, and is touted as India’s smartest highway. It is a part of the 271-km Ring Road. The other half of the project, the Western Peripheral Expressway, will connect Kundli to Palwal via Manesar.
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