New Delhi, July 1 (IANS) The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs, chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, on Wednesday approved the construction of a 6-lane road tunnel for NH-148AE, connecting the Dwarka Expressway with Nelson Mandela Marg, Vasant Kunj, in Delhi, with a total project length of 8.1 km and a total capital cost of Rs 6,969.67 crore on hybrid annuity mode (HAM).

The project will provide faster connectivity between west and south Delhi, connecting the Dwarka Expressway with Vasant Kunj, which will further benefit traffic coming from Gurugram, Dwarka, IGI Airport, and West Delhi towards the south.

The underground twin-tube tunnel will minimise surface disruption, preserving Southern Ridge Forest as the 1.98 km tunnel section passes beneath the Ridge. The NHAI is also proposing an elevated corridor between AIIMS and Mahipalpur. This link will connect the tunnel with the Barapullah elevated road, thereby connecting west and south Delhi with east Delhi, Ghaziabad and Noida, according to a cabinet communique.

The proposed tunnel passes through the Rangpuri (southern Delhi) Ridge, designed as a twin-tube tunnel (to be constructed through TBM), takes off from Shivmurti Interchange, and terminates before the intersection of Nelson Mandela Marg and Mahipalpur-Chhatarpur Road.

To mitigate congestion at this intersection, a 1.8 km elevated road is also proposed along the Nelson Mandela Marg. Besides, an additional flyover is proposed from Chhatarpur towards Mahipalpur along the existing flyover. For facilitating right-turn traffic towards Chhatarpur, an elevated U-turn is also proposed, the statement said.

The length of the main carriageway is 6.3 km. Considering the proposed flyover and elevated U-turn along Mahipalpur-Chhatarpur Road, the total project length works out to 8.1 km, including 3.14 km of tunnel, 0.98 km of tunnel approach ramp, 0.554 km approach with RE Wall, 2.556 elevated portion, and 0.870 km of at-grade road.

It has been estimated that development of each lane-kilometre of a National Highway generates an average of 264 person-days/day of direct employment and an average of 55 person-days/day of indirect employment. Therefore, the project will generate close to 7.54 lakh person-days of direct employment and 9.80 lakh person-days of indirect employment. The project will also induce additional employment opportunities due to an increase in economic activity in the vicinity of the proposed high-speed corridor, the statement added.

–IANS

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