Union Minister of Road Transport and Highways Nitin Gadkari has said that the Dwarka Expressway, India's first eight-lane access-controlled expressway, will be completed by April 2024. The expressway, which is being built at a cost of ₹9,000 crore, will cover 18.9 km in Haryana and 10.1 km in the national capital.The expressway will start from Shiv Murti on NH48 and will terminate at Kherki Daula Toll Plaza. It will have a four-level road network, incorporating flyovers, tunnels, underpasses, grade roads, elevated roads, and flyovers. A three-lane service road will also be constructed on both sides of the expressway. The entire expressway will incorporate an Intelligent Transport System (ITS) facility.The minister further informed that the country's widest 8-lane tunnel, spanning 3.6 km, is being built on this expressway. This will improve the connectivity between Haryana and West Delhi to the Indira Gandhi International Airport.Once completed, the expressway will link the upcoming India International Convention Centre in sector 25 of Dwarka. It will intersect Pataudi Road (SH-26) near Harsaru and Farukhnagar (SH-15A) near Basai, and will also cross the Delhi-Rewari rail line near Gurugram Sector-88 (B) and UER-II at Bharthal. It will also connect Gurugram Sector 21 with Sectors 88, 83, 84, 99, 113 and Dwarka to Global City.The expressway is being built as a bypass to decongest the National Highway 48 between Delhi and Gurugram. It is divided into four packages, with the first package (5.9 km-long) from Shiv Murti near Mahipalpur to Dwarka being about 60% complete. The second package (4.2 km-long) from Dwarka Urban Extension Road (UER) to Bajghera is about 82% complete, while the third package (10.2 km-long) from Bajghera to Basai rail overbridge (Delhi-Haryana border) is about 93% complete. The fourth package (8.7 km-long) from Basai ROB to Kherki Daula is about 99% complete.The expressway will feature a fully-automated tolling system, wherein vehicles will be connected with the GPS and toll tax will be deducted directly from the bank account after the distance is calculated.Two lakh metric tonnes of steel is being used in the construction of the expressway, which is 30 times more than the steel used in the Eiffel Tower. Two million cubic meters of concrete is being used in the construction of the expressway, which is six times more than the concrete used in Burj Khalifa. For the first time in the country, 12,000 trees have been transplanted on this expressway.Also ReadGovernment of Himachal Pradesh invites tenders for Civil WorksGovernment of Haryana invites tenders for civil works