‘Can’t Wait For PM Indefinitely’: Supreme Court Says Eastern Peripheral Expressway Must Open by June 1

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Thursday directed the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) to ensure that the newly constructed Eastern Peripheral Expressway, which is aimed at decongesting Delhi, is inaugurated on or before May 31 and thrown open to the public by June 1.

“[We] can’t wait indefinitely for the Prime Minister [to inaugurate it],” said a bench comprising Justices Madan B Lokur and Deepak Gupta. The expressway was initially supposed to be inaugurated by April 20.

The NHAI counsel told the court that the expressway was scheduled to be inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on April 29 but the PMO cancelled it due to his prior commitments. The Prime Minister was in poll-bound Karnataka, where he started his campaign blitz on the date, addressing 16 rallies in a week.

The apex court took exception to the 135-km Expressway, which envisages signal-free connectivity between Ghaziabad, Faridabad, Gautam Budh Nagar (Greater Noida) and Palwal, not being thrown open to the public despite being ready.

The judges made it clear that if the Eastern Peripheral Expressway was not inaugurated on or before May 31, it would be thrown open for public use on June 1 as the national capital was already under traffic distress.

The six-lane highway is expected to decongest Delhi by diverting around two lakh vehicles. It would also help in tackling pollution in the national capital.

The Eastern and Western Peripheral Expressways were planned in 2006 following the top court's order to build a ring road outside the national capital for channelling non-Delhi bound traffic.

The counsel appearing for the Haryana government told the bench that 81 per cent work of the 135-km Western Peripheral Expressway was done and the private entity involved in the work had assured that construction would be completed by June 30 this year.

According to the timeline, work on the Western Peripheral Expressway, which connects Kundli to Palwal via Manesar in Haryana, was to be completed by February 2019 but the construction would be done by June this year, the counsel said.

The apex court had asked the Centre in 2005 to build a peripheral expressway around Delhi by July 2016 to decongest and "de-pollute" the national capital.