It is a known fact that transporters face challenging situations when travelling towards Nainital and Corbett National Park due to bad roads and incredibly tough traffic conditions. NH- 24 which is the primary highway used when making this trip, is getting ready for an overhaul of big proportions. This is necessary since the Commonwealth Games are coming soon to Delhi and the traffic conditions could soon be much worse resulting in delays and optimisation problems.
Well , for starters the NH 24 will be upgraded to an 8 lane highway from the existing 4 lanes.The stretch that will be upgraded is from Ghaziabad border to Dasnia near Hapur.This stretch is proposed to be completed before this year is out. Well as many people who have taken this highway know that this is one of the busiest highway corridors in the country. This new overhaul will make strive to make this stretch almost traffic-signal free.
And the other unusual tidbit of information is that this upgraded stretch will be toll-free. This is very unlike earlier projects which have focused on better connectivity through roadways, the case in point being Delhi-Gurgaon expressway. This development has been discussed by Ministry Officials. They have explained the toll free status as reasonable because the majority of the traffic that uses this route is local. They expect traffic on this road to grow in view of increased occupancy in residential areas along NH-24. A top ministry official said that “This will be a cash contract project and we are hopeful of awarding it in the next one month. We have consciously decided not to follow the public private partnership (PPP) model. We felt that there would be strong opposition if we made it a toll road.”Ministry sources said the plan was conceived years ago but somehow did not take off. Ministry sources said two years back the daily traffic movement on this stretch was nearly 1.4 lakh passenger car units (PCUs). In the recent years, areas beyond Ghaziabad border have emerged as prime residential destination for people working in Delhi.A traffic survey by RITES in 2008 had shown that vehicular growth on this stretch had increased by almost 200% more than the highway’s carrying capacity.