Kundli–Manesar–Palwal Expressway

Delhi Western Peripheral Expressway, or Kundli-Manesar-Palwal (KMP Expressway), is a 135.6 km (84.3 mi) long Expressway being constructed in the Indian state of Haryana. The expressway will act as a Delhi bypass for traffic coming from north of Delhi on NH 1 and going to south of Delhi on NH 2 or west of Delhi on NH 8.

Overview

The 135.6 km long Kundli-Manesar-Palwal (KMP) Expressway in Haryana (official name Western Peripheral Expressway) has been divided into three sections of 45 km each. Flyovers are being constructed at places where the expressway crosses national highways, namely, NH 1 at Kundli (Sonepat) where it starts just north of Delhi, NH 10 just northwest of Bahadurgarh, NH 8 south of Manesar, NH 71B southwest of Sohna and NH 2 south of Palwal. Sixteen overpasses and underpasses at crossings on state highways and major district roads; seven overpasses, nine underpasses and 27 underpasses at crossings on village roads; and 33 agricultural vehicular underpasses, 31 cattle crossing passages, 61 pedestrian crossing passages, four railway overbridges, 18 major and minor bridges, cross drainage works (culverts) at 292 locations, and two truck parking and four bus bays will also be constructed.

Progress

KMP Expressway's construction started in 2007 and it was planned to become operational by 29 July 2009 at the cost of INR Rs.17.6 billion^[1] but the construction by the contractor, Darshan Singh Construction Company (DSC), has been so tardy that the expressway will not be ready even partially before second half of 2013 and the cost may escalate to Rs.25 billion.^[2][3]

The construction company assured the Haryana government in October 2010 that the 53 km long stretch of the expressway from Manesar to Palwal would be completed by March 2011.^[4] However, the stretch had not opened for traffic even by the end of 2012 and may not be ready before mid-2013. Work had been completed only on 48 km section by August 2012.^[2]

Lenders may pull the plug

On 18 February 2013, the newspaper Hindustan Times reported as follows:

IDBI Bank, the lead lender of the KMP project lender consortium, has expressed grave concern of all the project lenders because of substantial time and cost over-run of the project despite release of need-based funds from time to time to the concessionaire. It has communicated to Haryana government that by June 2013 the concessionaire would be exhausting the maximum permissible time of four years beyond the scheduled commercial operation date (CoD) as per the extant RBI guidelines for infrastructure sector. The Haryana government responded by saying that the concessionaire had been revising the commercial operation date time and again because of slow progress and the work is yet to be substantially completed. It was difficult to decide the modalities of the revised commercial operation date at this stage.^[5]

See also

• National Highway 1 (India)
• National Highway 2 (India)
• National Highway 8 (India)
• National Highway 10 (India)
• Eastern Peripheral Expressway
• Expressways in India
• Kundli-Manesar-Palwal Expressway (section)

References

External links

• KMP Expressway status as on 25-Dec-2008
• KMP Expressway at wikimapia