The minister said that the delay was creating traffic problem for motorists using the Delhi stretch of the expressway that connected the domestic and international airports.

The National Highway Development Programme (NHDP) wants to wrap up the construction work as early as possible to avoid any further embarrassment.

The National Highway Authority of India (NHAI) recently announced the opening of two tollfree flyovers on the stretch -- Rajokari (Delhi) and Rajiv Chowk (Gurgaon) -- as a face saving measure. The NHAI officials have promised to complete the project by December 2006.

The deadline for the project earlier was July 2005.

NHAI officials claimed that 71 per cent of the project was completed by May this year and rest was on the fast track. But the claims that work on the expressway will be over by December 2006 looks good on paper.

The project would not be completed in totality by the end of the year as the NHAI have clarified that the 1.8 km-long RTR-Palam elevated patch would not be ready before July 2007.

Which means the vehicles moving from Gurgaon to Delhi would be left with no other option but to slow down at the Palam Junction.

Even the proposed 32-lane toll plaza at the Delhi-Gurgaon border would be made functional with 20 to 25 lanes only by December 2006.

And a substantial number of changes in the original design of the project have escalated the cost of the expressway from Rs 555 crore to around Rs 800 crore.

This is likely to cross Rs 1000 crores making it the costliest expressway ever built in the country.