Ongoing stir likely to push expressway deadline

Bijendra Ahlawat

Faridabad, February 9

The ongoing agitation of farmers and residents near Mohna village in the district has adversely affected the pace of work on the 30-km-long Greenfield Expressway to connect the Delhi-Mumbai Expressway in Faridabad with the Noida International Airport at Jewar in UP. The deadline is expected to be extended by a year due to the stir, it is reported.

Though the expressway work was launched in September 2022, and was expected to be over in about two years, it is stated that it is not likely to be completed before August 2025. Farmers had launched the agitation in October last year. While their dharna entered the 118th day today, the issue was taken up by local MP Krishan Pal Gurjar, who met Union Transport Minister Nitin Gadkari on February 7. It is reported that Gurjar demanded his intervention for the resolution of the demand to provide an entry and exit point on the expressway near Mohna village. The tender of the Rs 1,660-crore project was opened in July 2022.

Roop Chand, spokesman of the agitation committee, said in the absence of access to the expressway, residents of 24 villages would have to take a long detour. Gurjar said while work on the expressway was on, the issue raised by the farmers was likely to be resolved soon as Gadkari had asked the NHAI to submit a report soon.