The exclusive roads to the international and domestic terminals of IGI Airport have received a final sanction after a high-level meeting between the UD Ministry and Delhi Government two days ago.

A slight change from the initial proposal is instead of five roads there will now be four — two to be constructed by the PWD, and one by DDA.

The fourth project will be handed over to NHAI, and constructed by DS Constructions, which built the Delhi-Gurgaon Expressway.

The fifth proposal — a shorter tunnel road at Dwarka circle — was dropped after a joint inspection on Thursday by officials of the Delhi government and Urban Development ministry.

Government officials said the tunnel road through Mahipalpur would be taken up first since it is likely to take up most time. The Sheila Dikshit government has already requisitioned tunnel-boring equipment from the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) to carry out the work.

“This will be the first time the Delhi government will construct a tunnel road and use this equipment (boring machine),” a senior government official said. “The only agency with tunnel-boring expertise in the city is the DMRC, so we will consult them for the project.”

Chief Secretary Rakesh Mehta said the proposal to build the Dwarka project was dropped because tunnel roads are “really expensive”. He said: “We needed to see if this road was actually a necessity for us. If it was passed the PWD would have carried out the work.”

The possibility of a private-public partnership (PPP) model has been ruled out, Urban Development ministry officials said.

Meanwhile, even before the project has taken off, differences have cropped up between DDA and DIAL, the joint-venture firm renovating the airport, on construction of one of the roads. A senior DDA official said the land agency is trying to sort out the differences. “At present when you take NH-8 to the domestic airport and the cargo terminal you go under the flyover to reach the Dwarka circle,” the official said. “The idea of this road was to segregate Dwarka commuters from commuters to the airport.

“We planned to build a half-flyover but restrictions of the Civil Aviation ministry regarding air funnel will prevent this. So we have proposed a tunnel road, instead.”