Road Collapses, Railing Hangs: Delhi-Meerut Expressway in Shambles Even Before Formal Inauguration

The Delhi-Meerut Expressway is yet to be inaugurated formally, but the pictures of the stretch show that it’s already in terrible condition after heavy rains. Constructed at thousands of crores, with the most advanced technologies used, the reality of the expressway has been exposed by the heavy monsoon rains. At several spots, rainwater has accumulated.

The section of the road near the Bahadarpur underpass seems to have collapsed completely, with the railing hanging. Patchwork is going on nowadays by putting up barricades. The stretch from Delhi to Partapur Interchange is inundated with water and bumps, causing many accidents on the road.

The expressway was scheduled to open on April 1. That couldn’t happen due to the non-completion of the second phase of construction. The Meerut and Dasna sections, though, remain open for vehicles. The 32 km stretch from Dasna to Meerut is in extremely bad condition. The GR Infra and NHAI have had to mend this stretch several times in the last four months.

Towards the end of May, when Monsoon was setting in, the entire expressway was full of potholes. Clogged drains and huge soil dumps rendered it practically unusable and unworthy of navigation. Due to this, farmers also faced difficulties in reaching their fields. On July 8, the expressway stretch near Moradabad village collapsed completely. The NHAI had to intervene after the media questioned it.

Following these issues, the GR Infra has increased the number of workers and machines. A team of 300 people, including 145 workers, has been deployed to carry out regular inspections of the expressway and make on-the-spot repairs.

Company officials say that inspection and repair will continue regularly. They further assured that the entire work will be completed within 10 days. Government officials, however, are denying any knowledge of the abysmal state of the road and insisted that repair work was being carried out at several spots.

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