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India’s new highway project

India’s Eastern Peripheral Expressway project is now moving forward - Partha Pratim Basistha reports. Work on the 12- year pending, National, Eastern Peripheral Expressway-2, surrounding India’s National Capital, Delhi and its National Capital Region (NCR) has finally commenced. The project involves the North Indian states of Haryana and Uttar Pradesh and this development follows the approval of India’s Supreme Court. The project was held up due to land acquisition issues. Contractors are now in the process
March 24, 2017 Read time: 4 mins
LeeBoy graders will be amongst the machines used on the new Eastern Peripheral Expressway project in India
India’s Eastern Peripheral Expressway project is now moving forward - Partha Pratim Basistha reports

Work on the 12- year pending, National, Eastern Peripheral Expressway-2, surrounding India’s National Capital, Delhi and its National Capital Region (NCR) has finally commenced.

The project involves the North Indian states of Haryana and Uttar Pradesh and this development follows the approval of India’s Supreme Court. The project was held up due to land acquisition issues. Contractors are now in the process of mobilising their manpower and machinery for the 135km-long project entailing a cost of INR 7,558 crores. The mega, sixlane arterial road project being developed by National Highway Authority of India (NHAI) has been targeted for completion within 400 days.

The arterial road project is being developed on the Engineering Procurement and Construction (EPC) basis, under phase- VI of NHAI’s National Highway Development Programme. Speaking to 3260 World Highways on the benefits of the project, RK Pandey, Member Projects, NHAI said, “The peripheral road project will be highly instrumental towards decongesting the heavily traffic-laden roads of Delhi and also reducing its high pollution levels, not to mention the high levels of accidents. This is because vehicular traffic moving between Palwal to Kundli in Haryana will not have to enter Delhi.

The Peripheral Expressway will provide a detour for vehicles through Ghaziabad in Uttar Pradesh, easing traffic within the city limits.” According to Pandey, the project is set to provide a detour to over 80,000 trucks that pass through India's capital every night. NHAI has awarded five major Indian contractors to undertake varied packages for the project.

The contractors are Sadbhav Engineering, Jai Prakash Associates, Ashoka Buildcon, 5376 Oriental Structural Engineers and 3152 Gayatri Projects Limited. Gayatri Projects Limited has been awarded package VI of the project to develop 22km involving a cost of INR 768. 56 crores, in Uttar Pradesh. Under package 1, Sadhav Engineering has been awarded 22km at a cost of INR 771. 8 crores passing through the states of Uttar Pradesh and Haryana. Under package III, the contractor has also been awarded a 24.5km stretch for INR 785. 8 crores in Uttar Pradesh. Jai Prakash Associates has secured 24.5km of work at a cost of INR 788.51 crores passing through Haryana and Uttar Pradesh under package III. Ashoka Buildcon has secured 22km in Uttar Pradesh at INR 789.31 crores.

Package V has been awarded by NHAI to Oriental Structural Engineers for developing 20km at a cost of INR 664.53 crores in Uttar Pradesh. The construction component of the six-lane concrete arterial road project will mainly involve construction of bridges, culverts and underpasses.

The major contractors have outsourced the jobs to more than 17 major and medium levels of subcontractors from Haryana, Uttar Pradesh and Maharashtra in Western India. The subcontractors include Ceepro Infra, Uday Infra, Yes Construction, Om Construction, Khari Infra, Siddharth Construction, KS Enterprise, SK Construction, and Balajaee Construction from Haryana.

The sub-contractors will be giving shape to one of India’s mega road construction projects being undertaken under India's Ministry of Road Transport's programme to develop 25,000km of National Highways in 2016-2017.

Commenting on the construction component of the project, Vivek Mehra, director, Ceepro Infra, one of themajor Delhibased subcontractors of Gayatri Projects, developing the Palwal- Ghaziabad link on the network said, “Out of the 20km stretch being developed by the major contractor, we are executing 10km. This will involve earthwork and construction of seven culverts, and seven underpasses. Earthwork will involve cutting the burrow areas and filling them for embankment with 11 lakh m3 of earth. At least 25 rigid dump trucks will be deployed by us to bring the earth from five kilometers involving the burrow area.”

Most of the stretch of the Peripheral Expressway is being developed on concrete. Quality being the major thrust of the project, the entire specification of the concrete is as per the standards and code of the Indian Road Congress. MM-25 grade of concrete will be used for the bridges and MM-35 grade for culverts. While MM-40 grade of concrete is for road pavement.

The seamless connectivity to be provided by the road project is expected to drive demand of residential and commercial space across Palwal, and the industrial towns of Faridabad, Ghaziabad and Kundli. The other major advantage is that the road project is expected to drive demand of construction equipment in a major way in India. Ashoka Buildcon has hired two brand new 20tonne 2200 Kobelco excavators, two 255 JCB tandem Vibromax rollers and four 269 LiuGong motor graders from Western Indiabased Dhuper Earth Movers. “We have placed orders for two new 717 LeeBoy motor graders, to be deployed in the project,” said Manjit Dhuper, director, Dhuper Earth Movers. The 16-yearold major construction equipment rental company rents out equipment mostly to road project contractors, and owns a total fleet of 30 units. This comprises, backhoe loaders, motor graders, excavators, and tandem rollers.

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