The ongoing construction work of Delhi-Meerut expressway has made commutation difficult upto the Electronic City metro station in Noida from Indirapuram, Ghaziabad. The non-availability of footpath, vehicular traffic and the rush of autos to switch between the two districts have made the situation miserable and thus reaching the DMRC blue line metro station from Ghaziabad a difficult thing.
So far, the e-rickshaws, cabs and autos are the only way to commute here but the same will be a story of past from December as the National Highways Authority of India i.e. NHAI is going to commence the construction of a Foot Over Bridge (FOB) across NH9 that will connect Indirapuram to Noida Sector 62. The officials said that the same will be built DMRC i.e. Delhi Metro Rail Corporation.
RP Singh, Project Director, NHAI said the structure of footover bridge is finalized and it will connect Noida Sector 62 with Indirapuram area. The authority is likely to start construction work in October, said.
Singh informed that the footover bridge in Noida will be built around the Sector 62 roundabout and in Ghaziabad, it will be at a distance of 200m from the CISF road. In future, the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation can connect this bridge with a 100m skywalk from the metro station to offer direct connectivity from Indirapuram to Noida Sector 62 and this FoB will be 82m long and 2.5m wide along with lifts on both the sides that can accommodate 16 people at a time.
This is first of the three FoBs [Footover bridge] UP Gate and Dasna. The other two are planned to be built at Chajarsi and near Columbia Asia hospital.
The biggest challenge was to provide sufficient space for metro line between Noida Electronic City-Mohan Nagar.
Singh also said that, a metro pillar for the corridor has already been erected on the DME-NH9 alignment, that will be 50m from the FOB.
Mudit Garg, Deputy General Manager, NHAI said that they also planned bus services between Noida and Ghaziabad for which 32 bus shelters on both sides of Delhi-Meerut Expressway and NH9 will be constructed. The shelters will come up at Khoda, Sai temple, Kala Patthar Model Town, CISF Chajarsi, Rahul Vihar and AKG Engineering college.
He also said that only limited three-wheelers on the highway will be allowed and NHAI has suggested colour coding of three-wheelers. Only colour coded vehicles would be allowed to ferry commuters on both sides,” said Garg. About random three-wheeler movement on both sides of DME, Garg said that the authority has written a letter to the district magistrates of Noida and Ghaziabad about the same. NHAI also asked the DMs to ensure three-wheeler parking is at a distance of 100m from the Delhi-Meerut expressway.