Haryana government has announced that it the ambitious Kundli-Manesar-Palwal (KMP) Expressway would be fully complete by February 2017, against the contracted completion date of August 2018. This advancement notwithstanding the expressway has already missed several deadlines ever since it was launched in January 2006. The originally envisaged completion date was July 2009.
The KMP expressway, also known as the Western Peripheral Expressway, is amongst several projects that are aimed to decongest Delhi and reduce pollution levels in the capital city that have reached alarming proportions. Along with the proposed northern peripheral road, southern peripheral road and other highways passing through the state, the KMP expressway will be instrumental in offering an alternative road for trucks that use Delhi merely as a transit to reach neighbouring states like Uttar Pradesh and Haryana. It is estimated that around 8,000 trucks transit through Delhi on a daily basis, polluting the city seriously.
History: The 135-km KMP Expressway project never really took off ever since it was awarded way back in 2006 to KMP Expressways Ltd, a special purpose vehicle formed by DS Constructions Ltd and Apollo Constructions, on BOT basis. The 135-km six-lane expressway was conceived in order to connect four major national highways – NH-1 (Delhi-Ambala-Amritsar), NH-2 (Delhi-Agra-Varanasi-Dankuni), NH-8 (Delhi-Jaipur-Ahmedabad-Mumbai) and NH-10 (Delhi-Hisar-Fazilka-India-Pakistan border). However, construction work was delayed significantly for a variety of reasons including delay in land acquisition, alleged delay in project execution, etc. When the contract was finally terminated in December 2014, less than 70 per cent of the work stood complete. The concession agreement was formally rescinded in March 2015.
In July 2015, the 135-km expressway was split into two packages as Kundli-Manesar (83 km) and Manesar-Palwal (53 km). The first was awarded to Essel Infraprojects when it quoted semi-annual annuity of Rs.157.50 crore. The contracted completion was August 2018 but this is now being advanced to February 2017. The Manesar-Palway section was awarded to a consortium of KCC Buildcon Pvt Ltd and Dilip Buildcon Pvt Ltd, on item-rate basis, with an envisaged completion date of January 2016. While this stretch is not yet complete, it is learnt to be in the final stages of completion.
