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India to soon have Asia’s longest wildlife highway

The elevated wildlife corridor will be part of the upcoming Delhi-Dehradun Expressway.

In a breakthrough achievement, Minister of Road Transport and Highways of India Nitin Gadkari informed that India will soon get the largest wildlife highway corridor present across Asia with an aim to protect the wildlife and enable its free movement which will ultimately help in maintaining a natural environment for the fauna.

The elevated corridor will be a monumental part of the upcoming Delhi-Dehradun Expressway. The last 20 km passes through an eco-sensitive area of ​​the Rajaji National Park, where the proposed corridor which will be 12 kilometre long is supposed to come up. The corridor also includes the 340-metre Teeth Kali Tunnel.

The expressway in total will be 210 kilometre long, connecting the major cities of Delhi, Saharanpur and Dehradun. The NHAI project was approved in 2020 under the Delhi-Dehradun Economic Corridor of Bharatmala project and is a combination of brownfield and greenfield project.

However, the work for the highway started in February of 2021 after a major backlash from prominent environmentalists who were concerned about the imminent harm to nature and wildlife due to its construction as the proposed route runs from the eco-sensitive zone of ​​the Rajaji National Park. Approximately 8588 trees in Uttar Pradesh for a stretch of 17 kilometres and 2572 trees in Uttarakhand for a stretch of a mere 3.6 kilometres will be cut by the culmination of this project.

Meanwhile, the project will cost 12,000 crores and is expected to be completed by 2023. The expressway will connect Delhi’s Akshardham with Dehradun and will reduce the travel time between the two cities from the existing 6 hours to 2.5 hours. It will also help in reducing the travel time between Delhi and Haridwar from 5 hours to just 2 hours.

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