Prime Minister Narendra Modi will inaugurate the Delhi-Dehradun Expressway on Tuesday, April 14. The long-awaited project is set to improve road connectivity between Delhi and Dehradun and is expected to make travel faster and smoother.
The Prime Minister will offer prayers at the historic Dat Kali Temple before inaugurating the Delhi-Dehradun Expressway.
"PM has an event here on the 14th. He will have a darshan at Ma Dat Kali. You can see that preparations are underway... PM will have the darshan for 5-10 minutes," said Shubham Goswami, son of Mahant Raman Prasad Goswami.
Delhi-Dehradun Expressway Route
Built at an estimated cost of around Rs 12,000 crore, the Delhi-Dehradun Expressway begins near the Akshardham Temple in Delhi and ends in Dehradun. The route passes through several towns in Uttar Pradesh, including Baghpat, Baraut, Muzaffarnagar, Shamli, and Saharanpur.
There will be a special road connecting it to Haridwar. The expressway is also linked to the Char Dham Highway, which connects key pilgrimage sites in Uttarakhand.
Delhi-Dehradun Expressway Travel time
The new expressway will make travelling between Delhi and Dehradun faster and smoother. Currently, the journey takes around 6 hours, but once the expressway is fully open, the same trip is expected to take just about 2.5 hours.
Comparisons to Train and Flight
Compared to other modes of transport, the expressway is expected to offer the fastest overall travel time between Delhi and Dehradun.
The fastest train, Vande Bharat Express, takes around 5 hours, while the Shatabdi Express can take over 6 hours.
Flights, on paper, take about 55 minutes to 1 hour 10 minutes. However, when factoring in travel time to the Indira Gandhi International Airport, which can take 30 minutes to over an hour depending on traffic, along with the need to arrive at the airport at least 2 to 3 hours before departure, the total travel time also comes close to 5 hours or more.
Toll at Delhi-Dehradun Expressway
The expressway is set to include five toll plazas. The toll collections have not started yet.
Features of Delhi-Dehradun Expressway
The expressway includes seven interchanges for a steady flow of traffic. There are also two rail overbridges and 10 major bridges.
For travellers' comfort, 14 wayside amenities are being developed. These will include facilities such as rest areas, food courts, fuel stations, and washrooms to make long journeys convenient and safer.
Expressway crosses Rajaji National Park
A key highlight of the expressway is its 12-km elevated stretch over the Rajaji National Park, specially designed to protect wildlife.
Instead of cutting the forest at ground level, the project includes two large elephant underpasses, each about 200 metres long, so that elephants can cross easily without coming in contact with traffic.
Along with this, six additional animal crossings have been created for other wildlife.
Once operational, the 210-km-long expressway will significantly reduce travel time and ease traffic on existing routes.
