Four-lane road to link Faridabad & Gurgaon

Dipak Kumar Dash, The Times of India
In a bid to ensure free flow of traffic on two important roads in NCR, Haryana PWD has awarded the widening of these two-lane roads to four-lane ones. Expected to be over in two years, Faridabad-Gurgaon Road (33.5 km) and Ballabhgarh-Sohna Road (32.6 km) will provide much-needed relief to daily commuters as well as to tourists heading from Delhi to getaway destinations like Badkhal Lake, Surajkund Craft Fair, Damdama Lake, Sohna and Sultanpur Bird Sanctuary.

PWD officials said the projects involving Rs 180 crore had been awarded to Reliance Infrastructure. However, the comfortable ride will come at a cost Rs 20 per trip that will be collected as toll fee. Concession period of the project is 17 years.

According to Haryana PWD officials, the project also includes bringing in necessary changes in the road geometry to make them safe. At present, there are several horizontal and vertical curves on the Gurgaon-Faridabad Road, leading to fatal accidents. Hence, there is a necessity to redesign the stretch to make it safe for commuters.

Initially, the project cost was Rs 230 crore, but it was reduced to Rs 180 crore after reviewing the scope of work. The Gurgaon-Faridabad Road starts from Gurgaon-Mehrauli Road at Sikanderpur and ends in Faridabad. The stretch, which passes through crushers' zone, is generally used by truckers carrying quarry materials.

Similarly, the the Ballabhgarh-Sohna Road takes off from Ballabhgarh on Delhi-Mathura road on NH-2 and terminates at its junction with Rewari-Palwal road on NH-71B. As per the bid document, Gurgaon-Faridabad Road runs through urban areas as well as rural habitats. The Ballabgarh-Sohna Road passes through plain terrain of the Aravalis. To undertake the widening, nearly 1,945 trees have to be felled on the Gurgaon-Faridabad stretch and another 3,778 have to be cut for Ballabhgarh-Sohna corridor. "Compensatory afforestation will be done.

As per the agreement, the concessionaire will plant and maintain saplings along the stretches,'' said a PWD official. There will be two toll plazas on Gurgaon-Faridabad road one on crushers' zone road and the other on Pali-Bhakri road.

"There are too many openings on this stretch, so we have made the provision of two toll collection points, but no commuter has to pay twice during one trip,'' Haryana PWD secretary K K Jalan said. Similarly, there will be two toll plazas on the other link road.