Work on the tunnel connecting Kapashera border to NH-8, which is being constructed to facilitate seamless connectivity from the Haryana border to the IGI Airport in Delhi, is around 80 per cent complete, NHAI officials said Saturday.

The tunnel is a part of the Dwarka Expressway, a key project of the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI).

With a length of 3.6 km and eight lanes, the tunnel is touted to be the longest and widest urban road tunnel in the country.

According to NHAI officials, the tunnel is one of the two tunnels that are part of package 1 of Dwarka Expressway. The other tunnel, from NH-8 to terminal 3 of the airport, is 2.5km long, officials said, adding 50 per cent of the work on the structure has been completed. The second tunnel will have six lanes, said sources.

“Anyone coming from Panipat can take the Urban Extension Road-2 (UER 2) upon reaching Alipur, continue till Dwarka Expressway, which is around 40 km away from Alipur, and take the tunnel to reach the airport,” said officials.

The UER 2, connecting Alipur in north Delhi with Delhi-Jaipur highway, near Rajokri in southwest Delhi, will be inaugurated by the end of this year and unclog several parts of the national Capital, Union Minister of Road Transport and Highways Nitin Gadkari had said earlier this year.

Temporary solution to congestion in capital: Expert

“The tunnel is aimed at reducing traffic congestion in the city, and the time it takes to get to the IGI from inside the city will be reduced. However, this is a temporary solution to the congestion in the capital. The higher the supply, the more the demand, and vehicular density is only going to increase,” said Amit Bhatt, managing director for India at the International Council on Clean Transportation.

Project comprises four levels

The Dwarka Expressway project consists of four levels: Tunnel/Underpasses, At-Grade Road, Elevated Flyover, and Flyover above Flyover. According to NHAI officials, after the completion of the construction on the tunnel and the UER 2, the distance between Manesar in Gurgaon to IGI is expected to reduce to 20 minutes.

The total length of Dwarka Expressway – in 4 packages — is 29 km, out of which 18.9 km length falls in Haryana and the remaining 10.1 km in Delhi. The expressway starts from Shiv-Murti on NH-8 and terminates near Kherki Daula toll plaza. The total cost of the project is about Rs 10,000 crore.

Although Dwarka Expressway was envisaged by the Haryana govt in 2006, the project remained on the shelf for years due to land acquisition issues. After the request of the Haryana government, NHAI took up the development of the expressway in 2016.

The present alignment is proposed to connect Sector 21 in Dwarka with NH-8 passing through Sectors 88, 84, 83, and 99-113 in Gurgaon along with the proposed Global City before terminating at NH-8 before the Kherki Daula toll plaza.