L&T starts work on Gurugram stretch of Dwarka Expressway

Infrastructure major Larsen & Toubro has started work on the Gurugram portion of Dwarka Expressway (nearly 20km).

Recently, company workers carried out soil testing of the entire stretch and are now establishing temporary structures, which will aid them during construction. The company has taken up packages 3 (Haryana border to Basai railway overbridge) and 4 (Basai railway overbridge to CPR/SPR/NH-8 junction). The Dwarka Expressway project has been divided into four packages, two of which lie in Delhi.

A senior official from L&T said: “Not a single day has been lost since we were awarded the project. We have mobilised nearly 400 of our own workers and 300 others through a sub-contractor to work on the 20-km stretch. Now, we have around 700 people working on the ground.”

NHAI awarded the project to L&T in the first week of December and gave them 24 months to complete work. The L&T official added, “We understand the significance of this expressway. We have done our ground work for the past one month, established our site office, and started on the final drawing of the project which will most likely be completed by the end of this month. However, there might be a few changes from our initial drawings to how we finally execute the project. Besides the designing part, soil testing has been carried out to ensure the safe installation of pillars.”

The stretch will be almost entirely elevated and there will be two exit points at Babarpur and Pataudi Road, according to sources. In the next few days, the company will carry out the piling work (making the floor for installing pillars of the elevated road) near the railway overbridge, on Basai Road and at Bajghera. TOI spotted a few workers making a track for cranes at the L&T site near the railway overbridge. The cranes will carry the huge concrete slabs, which will be used for construction of the elevated road. Other than this, a construction material mixing plant has also been set up at the same site.

While most of the stretch will be elevated, a few portions will be on ground level. “The elevated stretch will be made of concrete while the portions on ground level will be black,” added the L&T official. NHAI has also planned underpasses for safe passage of vehicles at traffic crossings under the elevated road and L&T will contstruct the same. Package 3 is being made at a cost of Rs 1,334 crore and package 4 with Rs 1,046 crore.

Haryana Shahari Vikas Pradhikaran (HSVP), earlier known as Huda, is yet to transfer a 1-km stretch near Kherki Daula village to NHAI but the highways authority has otherwise completed land acquisition for the project.

Meanwhile, the Delhi portion of the expressway is stuck over forest clearance.

Source : TOI