Delhi’s rapid urbanisation and expanding population have placed immense pressure on road corridors, leading to persistent bottlenecks and severe traffic congestion throughout the capital and the surrounding National Capital Region (NCR). As the city’s inner and outer ring roads and key entry/exit corridors such as Mukarba Chowk and Dhaula Kuan reached saturation, Delhi’s planners recognised an urgent need for an access-controlled, high-speed bypass to relieve city-bound and regional traffic.
The Urban Extension Road-II (UER-II), a long-conceived dream under the Delhi Master Plan 2021, was envisioned as a sustainable solution to address these challenges by creating a seamless link between the city’s major highways, urban centres and industrial towns within the NCR, while reshaping regional connectivity and mobility patterns.
Background and key stakeholders
The UER-II’s journey from concept to reality has spanned over two decades, having first been envisaged in the early 2000s as part of the Delhi Development Authority’s (DDA) master planning vision. However, initial progress faced significant roadblocks, most notably in obtaining timely financial closure and acquiring the necessary land, resulting in prolonged delays. The project gathered renewed momentum in 2018 when the National Highways Authority of India took over its implementation, aided by the DDA’s viability gap funding contribution of nearly Rs 40 billion for the city segment. Detailed project reports combining technical and financial outlines were prepared by URS Scott Wilson India and AECOM India.
For swift and integrated project execution, the engineering, procurement and construction model was adopted, with contractors such as J Kumar Infraprojects leading the construction of specific UER-II packages connected to the Dwarka Expressway. Other contractors included HG Infra Engineering, Ceigall India, Gawar Constructions, etc.
Despite inevitable early stumbling blocks related to land acquisition, the vast majority of UER-II was completed by August 2025 and saw a high-profile inauguration. By late 2025, all main and critical corridor sections had been made operational, marking a new era in Delhi-NCR connectivity.
Project rationale and importance
The historic expansion of Delhi-NCR has brought an exponential rise in freight, commercial and local commuter traffic on existing roads. This resulted in gridlocks at critical junctions, extended travel durations and severe discomfort for daily commuters. With freight and goods vehicles clogging the already overburdened city roads, the case for a dedicated bypass corridor grew stronger. The UER-II was planned to address these issues comprehensively: by rerouting through-traffic and freight away from the city’s arterial streets, it would help ease severe core congestion while enhancing urban air quality. Additionally, the project promised to drastically reduce travel and the logistic time between NCR’s main employment, industrial and economic centres, directly benefiting businesses and workers alike. The road’s design promotes reliable, multi-corridor connectivity, supporting large volumes of commuters transiting to and from the airport, as well as NCR cities such as Gurugram, Sonipat, Bahadurgarh and Noida.
The improved transportation access further aims to unlock previously underdeveloped areas for commercial and real estate growth. Environmental considerations have also played a crucial role, with a commitment to use recycled materials wherever feasible and practices such as transplantation of mature trees during construction. Many aspects of the UER-II project reflect sustainable, forward-thinking planning.
Design specifications and features
As an officially designated stretch of National Highway (NH)-344M, the UER-II is a 75.7 km long, six-lane, access-controlled expressway forming the capital’s third ring road. Its main alignment links key national highways, including NH-44 at Alipur, NH-09 at Mundka and NH-48 near Mahipalpur (adjacent to the Indira Gandhi International [IGI] Airport), efficiently bypassing the city’s most congested sectors. Important multi-level interchanges at Alipur (NH-44), Mundka (NH-09) and the Bahadurgarh spur help minimise delays and essential signal points.
The expressway integrates various extensions and branches, such as a 29.6 km four-lane Bawana-Sonipat spur, bypassing NH-44 congestion, and a 7.3 km four-lane Najafgarh-Bahadurgarh spur that connects Dichaon Kalan with NH-09 and the Kundli-Manesar-Palwal Expressway, which is particularly vital for logistics and freight movement.
The corridor also includes bridges, flyovers, elevated viaducts and numerous road over bridges, ensuring seamless grade separation and uninterrupted traffic flow. In a major innovation, the expressway utilised more than 1 million metric tonnes of recycled inert material sourced from municipal landfills at Bhalswa and Ghazipur. Furthermore, the implementation sought to maintain Delhi’s green buffer by transplanting, rather than cutting, over 10,000 mature trees previously found along the alignment.
By forming a semicircular, signal-free corridor around Delhi’s northern, western and southern urban periphery, UER-II is expected to dramatically reduce travel times for commuters and transporters. For example, the journey from Singhu Border (in North Delhi) to IGI Airport, which previously took upwards of two hours, now takes under 40 minutes. A key accomplishment of the expressway is the redirection of heavy vehicles and freight traffic away from central city routes towards the newly established corridor, relieving years of strain on both the inner and outer ring roads, and improving daily travel quality for local residents. The UER-II also boasts state-of-the-art surveillance and incident management systems, ensuring rapid emergency response and enhanced traveller safety, aligning with global best practices for modern expressways.
Potential project impact
The UER-II is poised to become a true economic engine for Delhi-NCR. Its direct, efficient connections are already promoting faster and more affordable goods movement, reducing supply chain costs and enabling key industrial and logistics clusters, such as those in Gurugram, Sonipat and Bahadurgarh, to flourish. The real estate and warehousing sectors along the corridor, in particular, are witnessing sharp appreciation, with market experts projecting 25-40 per cent increases in value in the near future.
Beyond hard economics, UER-II’s design and enhanced mobility options are likely to spur significant new housing, retail and commercial development in peripheral markets, lifting livability standards and catalysing new urban centres.
On the sustainability front, the expressway’s construction set crucial precedents by maximising recycled content in road construction and prioritising the health and longevity of the city’s green infrastructure. These practices provide a practical blueprint for the next generation of Indian expressways, aiming for low-carbon, climate-friendly urban growth.
Future plans and vision
The completion of UER-II’s main segment is only the beginning. Planners have already initiated alignment studies for the expressway’s eastern extension.The proposed extension will span 17 km from the Alipur-end of UER-II to Tronica City on NH-709B (Delhi-Saharanpur-Dehradun Expressway). This is expected to cost over Rs 33.50 billion. Recently, on September 22, 2025, NHAI invited bids for consultancy services to conduct a feasibility study and prepare a detailed project report (DPR) within five months, at a cost of Rs 20.32 million. The feasibility study will cover traffic analysis, alignment options, topography, lane configurations, utilities like power and water lines, forest clearance requirements, and a socioeconomic impact assessment. The second phase of the DPR will focus on structural design, hydrological and soil investigations, intersection design, drainage planning, traffic signage, cost estimation, and tolling schemes. Addressing safety concerns, NHAI plans to tackle the issue of stray cattle along the corridor. The consultant will identify suitable sites for cattle shelters, prioritising surplus land within the existing or proposed right-of-way, and include fodder storage, feeding areas, and amenities for caretakers. There is also an active dialogue about further extensions to connect IGI Airport, Vasant Kunj, Tughlakabad and Okhla’s industrial areas, with an ultimate goal of fully realising a third ring road entirely encircling the capital.
Future proofing has been planned from inception by embedding “e-highway-ready” features into the corridor, anticipating a widespread transition to electric vehicles and overhead charging technology as urban mobility systems evolve in the coming decades.
The UER-II stands as both a symbol and a testament to Delhi’s forward-looking approach to urban infrastructure and mobility. By addressing chronic traffic congestion, improving intercity and intra-city connectivity, and championing sustainable construction and green engineering, UER-II is not just another highway – it is an enabler of economic transformation, regional integration and improved environmental standards for the capital and NCR at large. As new sections come in, the positive impact of this mega-project will only deepen, offering a replicable model for fast-growing cities across India confronting the dual challenges of urbanisation and sustainable development.
Himanshu Tagore
