NEW DELHI: The Union Cabinet on Wednesday approved two major highway infrastructure projects worth a combined Rs 14,114.81 crore, including a Rs 6,969.67 crore tunnel project in Delhi aimed at easing congestion and a Rs 7,145.14 crore greenfield highway corridor in Uttar Pradesh.Announcing the decisions, Union minister Ashwini Vaishnaw said the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA), chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, cleared the projects to improve connectivity, reduce travel time and boost economic activity under the PM GatiShakti National Master Plan.The Cabinet approved the construction of an 8.1-km, six-lane road tunnel on NH-148AE connecting the Dwarka Expressway with Nelson Mandela Marg in Vasant Kunj, Delhi, at an estimated cost of Rs 6,969.67 crore.The project, to be implemented under the Hybrid Annuity Mode (HAM) of the National Highway (Original) programme, includes a 3.14-km twin-tube tunnel beneath the Southern Ridge. The tunnel will be constructed using a Tunnel Boring Machine (TBM) to minimise surface disruption.The project is expected to significantly improve connectivity between West and South Delhi and ease traffic movement from Gurugram, Dwarka and Indira Gandhi International Airport towards South Delhi.Vaishnaw said the project is expected to be completed in around five years. It is also projected to generate about 7.54 lakh person-days of direct employment and 9.80 lakh person-days of indirect employment.The Cabinet also approved the construction of the 117.7-km, four/six-lane access-controlled Kanpur-Kabrai Greenfield Highway in Uttar Pradesh at a total capital cost of Rs 7,145.14 crore.The project, which forms part of the Bhopal-Kanpur Economic Corridor under the NH(O) programme, will be implemented by the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) under the Build-Operate-Transfer (BOT) toll model.Designed for speeds of 80-100 kmph, the corridor is expected to reduce travel time between Kanpur and Kabrai from around three-and-a-half hours to just one-and-a-half hours.Addressing the media, Vaishnaw said the highway project is likely to be completed within two-and-a-half years. The corridor is expected to generate nearly 1.2 crore person-days of direct and indirect employment and handle an annual average daily traffic of about 18,069 passenger car units (PCUs) by FY2028.While the Kanpur-Kabrai project will be developed under the BOT (Toll) model, allowing private developers to recover investments through toll collections, the Delhi tunnel project will follow the HAM model, under which the government bears 40 per cent of the project cost during construction and pays the remaining amount as annuities during the operational phase.
