The Supreme Court on Friday gave the go ahead for the Rs 3657-crore expressway around Delhi.
This is the first-ever SC order on creation of an infrastructure project.
The expressway, to be constructed in five-an-a-half-years, would ease traffic and prevent heavy trucks from using Delhi as the transit route for their journey to other states.
The order came after the Union Cabinet secretary, in consultation with the chief secretaries of Delhi, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh, submitted a report on the western and eastern peripheral expressways.
According to the report, the private party, which would be given a 'build, operate and transfer' lease for 30 years, would contribute Rs 1688 crore, the Union government's contribution would be Rs 1125 crore, the Delhi government Rs 422 crore and the Haryana and Uttar Pradesh governments would contribute Rs 211 crore each.
While the Haryana State Industrial Development Corporation would construct the western peripheral expressway, the National Highway Authority of India NHAI would construct the eastern peripheral expressway.
The court asked both the HSIDC and the NHAI to submit a report within three weeks regarding the time they would take to fix the alignment of the expressways. This was for quickening land acquisition, the court said.
It also wanted to know whether the time to prepare a detailed project report could be reduced from 15 months.
