On April 1 the travel time between Delhi-NCR to Meerut will decrease to just 50 minutes from two hours. Phase 2 and 4 of the 82-km Delhi-Meerut Expressway (DME) would be open to the public tomorrow, said officials of the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI).
For a week after the opening, the authority will not charge users either till the Union ministry of road transport and highway approves the rates, reported Hindustan Times.
The DME’s 14-km phase 1 (Akshardham-UP Gate) and 22-km phase 3 (Dasna-Hapur) are already operational. The 19 km phase 2 links UP Gate and Dasna while the 32 km phase 4 links Dasna and Meerut.
“For a more efficient tolling system, we are currently testing the linking of automatic number plate reader (ANPR) to the FASTag system,” said Mudit Garg, NHAI project director.
The ANPR is a system of high definition, high-speed cameras installed throughout the DME that was meant to catch traffic violations. FASTag is a system that would enable digital transactions of tolls. In February, the central government had made FASTag mandatory on all vehicles.
In phase 1, which is in Delhi, phase 1 has a limit of 70kmph, while it is 100kmph in the rest, which are in Uttar Pradesh.
Phase 4 is an access-controlled six-lane expressway and the work on all 55 underpasses along its length was completed. In phase 2, work on 17 out of 18 underpasses was completed. NHAI officials said the remaining underpass near ABES College will be opened in another week.
The NHAI has installed about 5000 streetlights on all four phases.
