# Dwarka Expressway

NH 248-BB, commonly known as Dwarka Expressway is a 27.6 km (17.1 mi) long, under construction, 8-lane (elevated) and 8-lane (service road), total 16-lane elevated grade separated expressway connecting Dwarka in Delhi to Kherki Daula Toll Plaza, Gurgaon in Haryana. The expressway takes off from km 20 milestone of NH 48 (old NH 8) at Shiv Murti in Mahipalpur in Delhi and terminate at km 40 of NH 48 near Kherki Daula Toll Plaza in Gurgaon in Haryana. The Dwarka Expressway has been planned as an alternate road link between Delhi and Gurgaon, and is expected to ease the traffic situation on the Delhi–Gurgaon Expressway.
Entire project, costing ₹7,500 crore was planned in 2006, contract was awarded in 2011. Of the original 18 km project, 14 km were completed by 2016. Several more kilometre project routes was added to the scope of the project as an extension. Various parts of the project remained delayed due to land acquisition and tree transplantation hurdles, resulting in the intervention from the Prime Minister's office in November 2018 to resolve the pending issues. Subsequently, the land for the 10 km section was handed by the Haryana and Delhi, AAI and HSVP were in the process of expediting the resolution in December 2018.
One of the cause of delay was due to NHAI's need for the land from DDA to transplant 13,000 trees from the route alignment, which the Delhi's Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal agreed to provide in November 2018.
In December, Haryana too handed over the land for 10 km route to NHAI and was in process of handing over the remaining land for the 4 km route by 31 December 2018. Earlier in January 2018, AAI too had agreed to sell their land to NHAI for the route falling on their land. Put together all of this takes care of the land needed for the entire route from various parties i.e. AAI, DDA and HSVP.

## History

The Dwarka Expressway was envisaged as an alternate route for connecting Dwarka and Gurgaon in 2006. It would have been 18 km long, signal-free road, with 14 km in Gurgaon and rest in Delhi. A 3.2 km long Central Peripheral Road (CPR) was planned to connect it to Southern Peripheral Road (SPR) at Kherki Daula on NH-48. Land acquisition started in 2007-08. The construction contract was given to JSR Construction Private Ltd and India Bulls Private Ltd in April 2011 and the completion date was set to be 31 March 2012. The Punjab and Haryana High Court disposed of the petitions in May 2015. In June 2016, the project was acquired by National Highways Authority of India and road was renamed National Highway 248-BB. By that time, 14 km stretch of the expressway with six lanes had been completed. The scope of the project was expanded and the proposed Central Peripheral Road (CPR) and 6.3 km long section of Urban Extension Road-II (UER II) were included as part of the expressway. But construction couldn't be started immediately as HUDA was not able to hand over land to NHAI due to the matter of allotment of alternate plots to oustees being heard in Punjab and Haryana High Court. On 28 May 2018, the High Court directed HUDA to allot alternate houses to 72 oustees, holding General Power of Attorney or Special Power of Attorney, within two weeks and thus allowing the authority to demolish remaining houses and hand over the land to NHAI.

### Route and construction

This 29 km long project, 18.9 in Gurugram and 10.1 km in Delhi, is expected to be completed by May 2023. Work on Haryana portion can commence as of Dec 2018. Delhi has provided the land but yet to provide the forests clearance as of December 2018. Route alignment and phases/packages of this expressway being built by NHAI are as follows:
* Package 1 - in Delhi: Mahipalpur Shiv Murti cloverleaf interchange to Bijwasan railway station underpass, 5.3km including 3.6 km deep tunnel: This stretch starts from Shiv Murti at NH48 and ends at the Bijwasan Rail Underbridge near Dwarka Sector 21. 3.5 km of this will be a deep tunnel running under the runway, which will cost INR1000 crore.
* Package 2 - in Delhi: Bijwasan rail underpass to Delhi–Haryana border, 4.2 km elevated: This stretch will be from km 5.3 at the Bijwasan rail underbridge till km 9.5 at the Delhi–Haryana border on the expressway.
* Package 3 - in Gurugram: Delhi–Haryana border to approach of Basai railway overbridge, 10.2 km elevated: It will pass through Sectors 102, 103, 104, 105, 106, 109, 110, 111, 112 and 113 in Gurugram. Since this section has continuous intersection of sector roads, most of the stretch will be constructed as elevated dual carriageway of 4 lanes each. The service roads will run beneath the main carriageway and will be elevated at all major junctions. The crossroads will also be depressed with underpasses at all major junctions. It will cost INR 1,333 crore.
* Package 4 - in Gurugram: Basai rail overbridge to Kherki Daula Toll Plaza, 8.77 km elevated: From Rail over Bridge at Basai to the cloverleaf interchange near Kherki Daula will be constructed on EPC Mode at a cost of ₹1,047.007 crore by M/s Larsen and Toubro Ltd. The project consists of an 8-lane elevated structure for the main carriageway of Dwarka Expressway, Trumpet Interchange for Manesar Road and Cloverleaf interchange with NH-8-SPR intersection. The completion period of the project is two years with a maintenance period of four years. Under the project, a minor bridge will be widened, additional ROBs, five VUP, six Bus Bays with Bus Shelter will be erected and four Junction Improvements will be carried out.
* Package 5 - in Delhi: Mahipalpur Shiv Murti to IGI Airport T3 Tunnel (also called Delhi Airport Tunnel Expressway), 2.3 km shallow tunnel to T3: An east-to-west running new 4-lane shallow 2.3 km tunnel costing INR350 crore being built as part of Dwarka Expressway from Shiv Murti to Terminal 3 of Indira Gandhi International Airport.

## Route alignment

The route alignment to the west of Gurgaon is as follows:
* In Delhi
** Mahipalpur, commences at Shiv Murti on 20 km milestone of NH 48
** Along Indira Gandhi International Airport southern perimeter
** Under Delhi–Rewari railway line near new terminus of Bijwasan railway station
** Dwarka Sectors 21, 22, 25, 27, 28
** Najafgarh-Bijwasan Road
* In Haryana
** Bajghera village in Gurgaon
** Road bridge over Delhi-Rewari railway line at Sectors 99 x 37D in Gurgaon
** National Highway 352W (Pataudi Road) near Harsaru in Gurgaon
** Kherki Daula Toll Plaza, terminates here to Delhi–Mumbai Expressway and Southern Peripheral Road (Ghata-Kherki Daula 16 km route to east of Gurugram)

## Future

Delhi–Jaipur SuperExpressway (NH-352B), is a greenfield expressway which is under construction of ₹6,530 crore 6-lane 195-km-long from Kherki Daula (from Dwarka Expressway in Gurgaon) to Chandwaji (on NH-48 on northern outskirts of Jaipur) runs parallel to western side of NH48. It cuts down Delhi–Jaipur distance by 40 km and travel time from 3–4 hours (270 km by Delhi–Mumbai Expressway) to 2 hours. It passes through Haryana (Kherki Daula, Farrukhnagar, Pataudi, Taoru, Rewari, north of Bawal, Jhajhar & Nangal Choudhary) and Rajasthan (Behror, Kotputli, Shahpura & Chandwaji). In April 2023, the earthworks had already started and expected completion date is 2025.

## Status updates

* 2019 Mar: Foundation stone laid by Union Minister Nitin Gadkari on 08-March-2019. Most of the construction contracts already awarded.
* 2021 Feb: More than half of the construction work is complete. The Kherki Daula cloverleaf section of the expressway is expected to be completed by September 2022.
* March 2024: PM Narendra Modi inaugurated the 18.9 km Haryana stretch (packages 1, 2 and 3 from Bijwasan Rail Underbridge to Kherki Daula) of Dwaraka Expressway, remaining section are 2 tunnels which lie entirely in Delhi (package-1 Bijwasan to Shiv Murti Tunnel and package-5 Shiv Murti to T3 Tunnel) which will be completed by December 2024.