The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs, chaired by the Prime Minister Narendra Modi, today has approved the construction of 6 Lane Road Tunnel For NH-148AE connecting Dwarka Expressway (NH 248 BB) with Nelson Mandela Marg, Vasant Kunj in Delhi with a total project length of 8.1 Km and total capital cost of Rs.6969.67 crore on Hybrid Annuity Mode (HAM) under NH (O) scheme.
Project will provide faster connectivity between West and South Delhi connecting UER 2/ Dwarka Expressway with Vasant Kunj in South Delhi. Further benefiting traffic from Gurugram, Dwarka, IGI Airport, and West Delhi towards South Delhi. Underground twin-tube tunnel minimizes surface disruption, preserving Southern Ridge Forest (1.98 km tunnel section passes beneath the Ridge). NHAI is also proposing Elevated Corridor between AIIMS and Mahipalpur. This link will connect Tunnel with Barapullah elevated road thereby connecting West Delhi, South Delhi with East Delhi, Ghaziabad and NOIDA.
The proposed tunnel passes through 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 an elevated road is also proposed (1.8 Km) along the Nelson Mandela Marg. Additional flyover from Chhatarpur towards Mahipalpur is also proposed along the existing flyover. For facilitating right turn traffic from towards Chhatarpur, an elevated U Turn is also proposed.
Length of the Main Carriageway is 6.3 Km. Considering proposed flyover and elevated U Turn along Mahipalpur Chhatarpur Road, the total project length is 8.100 km, including 3.140 km of tunnel, 0.980 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-kilometer of a National Highway generates average 264 person-days/ day of direct employment and average 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 increase in economic activity in the vicinity of the proposed high-speed corridor.
