Ghaziabad: A 14-km link road connecting the Delhi-Meerut Expressway (DME) with the newly inaugurated Ganga Expressway will be ready by July, the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) said. Once operational, the road will provide seamless high-speed access from Ghaziabad and Noida to Prayagraj and other eastern UP districts.Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated the 594-km, six-lane Ganga Expressway on Wednesday. The corridor, the longest expressway in the state, aims to cut travel time between Meerut and Prayagraj to six hours.“The work is in full swing, and nearly 80% of the link road project is complete. The remaining work will be finished by July,” an NHAI official said.The link road, estimated to cost Rs 524 crore, is effectively the fifth phase of the DME project. It branches off the Dasna-Meerut stretch at Zainuddinpur village near Modinagar and connects to NH-235 in Meerut. From there, a 4-km existing road will eventually be connected to the Ganga Expressway.A second corridor is also being planned. The Uttar Pradesh Expressways Industrial Development Authority (UPEIDA) is preparing a detailed project report for a 74.3-km, 120-metre-wide expressway to connect the Noida International Airport in Jewar and the Yamuna Expressway with the Ganga Expressway at Siyana in Bulandshahr. Approximately 20 km of the road will pass through GB Nagar and 54.3 km through Bulandshahr, linking the Ganga Expressway to the Film City area in Yamuna City.The project will improve connectivity from the eastern UP districts to the Noida airport, with commercial operations expected to begin in the first week of June.In Feb 2026, UP govt released Rs 1,204 crore for land acquisition for the project. The Yamuna Authority will acquire about 740 acres from 16 villages under its jurisdiction, with the land cost pegged at around Rs 1,200 crore. The overall project cost is estimated at approximately Rs 4,000 crore.Together, the two link roads are expected to create an integrated high-speed corridor spanning western and eastern Uttar Pradesh, significantly reshaping regional connectivity across the NCR and beyond.
