NHAI has asked the Delhi Development Authority (DDA) to provide land for the transplantation of around 4,000 trees that needed to be cut off for the project. Conceived in early 2000, UER-II will decongest the national capital. The 75.71km long corridor will connect four national highways (NH-1, 10, 8 and 2) and provide seamless connectivity between north, northwest Delhi and IGI airport and Gurugram. It will also pass through around 25 villages in Delhi, starting from GT Karnal Road.
The project, which was to be initially executed by the DDA, was approved by Delhi’s apex traffic and transport planning body, Unified Traffic and Transportation and Infrastructure Planning and Engineering Centre (UTTIPEC), in 2016 but got delayed due to land acquisition-related issues, after which it was finally transferred to the NHAI.
The highways authority has got permission to cut and transplant 6,600 trees from the Delhi government, of which 80% will be transplanted along the proposed corridor. The work to transplant close to 4,000 trees along the corridor has already started and the authority has transplanted around 700-odd trees so far. In addition to this, the NHAI has to carry out compensatory afforestation, since 54.87 hectares of deemed forest land were diverted to build the project.
