Prime Minister Narendra Modi will inaugurate the 210-km Delhi-Dehradun Expressway on April 14 in Dehradun, along with Union Road Transport and Highways Minister Nitin Gadkari. This will reduce travel time from six hours to two and a half hours.
The project was built at a cost $11,868.6 crore project was initially scheduled to be completed by December 2024. It passes through Baghpat, Barot, Shamli and Saharanpur. The foundation stone for the project was first laid by Gadkari on February 26, 2021, and Prime Minister Modi laid another foundation stone on December 4, 2021.
The first 32 km stretch of this project from Delhi, including Akshardham via Geeta Colony, Shastri Park, Mandola Vihar in Ghaziabad, to Khakra in Baghpat, was ready by mid-2025, and was opened to the public in December 2025.
Also Read: Delhi-Dehradun Expressway may open by February 26
According to officials, this extension will relieve some congestion in East Delhi.
The expressway has over 100 tunnels, five railway over bridges, and will connect with the Delhi-Mumbai Expressway, the Eastern Peripheral Expressway, and the roads leading to Haridwar and Roorkee.
A key feature of the project is the 12-kilometre elevated wildlife corridor through Rajaji National Park, with six animal corridors to facilitate safe wildlife movement.
In July 2025, the government told the Rajya Sabha that 17,913 trees had been cut or planted on the highway. As a mitigation measure, NHAI said 50,600 trees have been planted within the right-of-way and $Rs 40 crore has been given to the forest departments of UP and Uttarakhand.
The highway is divided into four stages:
Phase 1: Starts from Akshardham Temple (Delhi) to the Eastern Peripheral Expressway (EPE) near Baghpat (32 km, 12 lanes).
Phase 2: EPE to Saharanpur Bypass (118 km, 6 lanes, 7 interchanges, 60 tunnels).
Phase 3: Saharanpur to Ganeshpur Bypass (40 km, 6 lanes).
Phase 4: Ganeshpur to Dehradun (20 km, 4-6 lanes, including 2 double tunnels and a wildlife elevated bridge).
