GHAZIABAD: The daily crawl on the UP section of NH-24, at least on the part immediately next to Delhi covering Noida and Indirapuram, could end before May.The National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) says it is confident of opening an 8km portion between UP Gate and Vijay Nagar in the upgraded form of Delhi-Meerut Expressway in another two months, though it will miss the earlier date it had set (March 2019).The NHAI puts the delay down to the halt in work for 16 days (October 31 to November 15) last year when anti-pollution measures were in place and frequent spells of rain this winter. But for the lakhs of commuters who now have contrasting rides on NH-24, a crawl in the UP section and a cruise in Delhi, and are counting down to the day when the widened highway is opened, it will be a huge relief before summer if the NHAI can keep its word.The expressway will make the 30km drive between Sarai Kale Khan and Vijay Nagar signal-free and sharply bring down travel time as, currently, the stretch between UP Gate and Vijay Nagar is a bumper-to-bumper crawl virtually all day. The Delhi section of the expressway was opened last year.A senior NHAI official said work on the UP Gate-Vijay Nagar stretch is 50% complete. “We had earlier planned to open the 8km stretch in March but rain and pollution played spoilsport due to which we had to stop work. Now, we have set April 2019 as the deadline,” said RP Singh, project director, NHAI. Most of the remaining work is on the central verge of the expressway and the underpasses. The widening process is almost complete and traffic has been diverted to some newly opened sections so that work on the central verge and underpasses can progress faster.Underpasses will be critical to this stretch as they will cater to traffic from Noida and Indirapuram on either side. Ten underpasses are being built between UP Gate and Vijay Nagar, of which three are meant only for light vehicles. Other than this, NHAI is also confident of wrapping up work on two bridges on the stretch, on the Hindon canal and river, within April. “Plinth work (on the Hindon river bridge) is over and now we will only have to place girders and lay slabs on it. The April deadline will be met,” said Singh.There will, however, only be one point between UP Gate and Vijay Nagar for vehicles to access the main access-controlled expressway (the six-lane stretch, like it is in Delhi) at Abhay Khand. “From Abhay Khand, near the Gaur office in Indirapuram, the main expressway can be accessed. Till Dasna, there will be two more access points, at ABES cut and AKG Engineering College, which will open in the next phase in December 2019,” said Singh.NHAI plans to open the entire section between UP Gate and Dasna by the end of the year. “The deadline is May 2020 but we will complete work by December 2019 on this stretch,” said Singh.

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