It goes through Jhajjar, Badli, Bahadurgarh, Sonipat, Ghaziabad and other parts of the NCR, and connects four major national highways :- NH-1, NH- 2, NH-8 and NH -10.
A commute on the 84-km-long road, which has six lanes, makes an exhilarating experience in the middle of the day as it passes through some of the greenest farmlands between Manesar and Kundli. It goes through Jhajjar, Badli, Bahadurgarh, Sonipat, Ghaziabad and other parts of the NCR, and connects four major national highways -- NH-1, NH- 2, NH-8 and NH -10.
After much delay, the Kundli-Manesar-Palwal (KMP) Expressway, also known as Western Peripheral Expressway, finally became fully operational on Monday when Prime Minister Narenda Modi inaugurated 84-km stretch of the e-way. Proposed in 2003 by the Environment Pollution (Prevention and Control) Authority (EPCA), the KMP Expressway is likely to give the National Capital Region (NCR) some much-needed relief from traffic congestion and subsequent air pollution.
Now the total length of the KMP Expressway will be 136 kilometres as 52-km Manesar to Palwal section of the expressway is already operational for the last two years.
An HT team visited the expressway a week before it was scheduled to be opened on November 1, and it was obvious that the road needed some more finishing touches before becoming operational. Perhaps the reason why the inauguration was extended by more than two weeks.
With the cloverleaf on the national highway 48, which connects the Manesar-Palwal section with Manesar-Kundli section, one has to take a U-turn to get on the approaching road from where starts the 84-km-long journey. It is expected that almost 20% to 25% of non-destined commercial traffic entering Gurugram and Delhi would take this diversion, thus cutting down congestion and pollution levels. Strong votaries of the expressway cite the toll collection figures of Mnaesar-Palwal section as an indication of the future. “Initially, the toll collection on this stretch for first few months was around Rs 20 lakh per day but now the average is around Rs 60 lakh and most of it is from commercial and heavy traffic,” says Pradeep Goyal, vice-president, Essel Infraprojects Ltd, which was awarded contract in 2016.
