Centre steers clears Dehradun ring road project

The Union transport ministry has approved and agreed to bear the entire cost of building a ring road around Dehradun city and in this connection has directed the Uttarakhand government provide 1,100 acres of land along the Delhi-Dehradun national highway. As a matter of fact, apart from building the ring road, the Centre has also decided to set up a logistics park, a fruit and Vegetables Park and a wholesale ‘mandi’ are to be developed as part of the project and the state government in Uttarakhand has agreed to the proposal. The Dehradun ring road project is expected to rid the state capital of its traffic woes and in view of this, Nitin Gadkari has directed the state government to carry out a feasibility study on the ring road as quickly as possible. The Union minister has also issued instructions to speed up work on the 889 km-long all-weather road that is being built at an estimated cost of ₹12,000 crore and considered to be the lifeline of the hill state. In addition to this, nineteen works related to the road projects have been completed and work is in progress on 22 others and the Union transport minister also gave approval for the 42.50 km Najibabad-Afjalgarh bypass which will reduce the distance between Kumaon and Garhwal regions of Uttarakhand by 20 km and the travel time by 45 minutes and also gave approval for the construction of a four-lane road from Majhaula to Khatima, MoRTH said in an official statement.