New super expressway between Delhi and Jaipur to reduce travel time by half

Travel time between New Delhi and Jaipur will soon be reduced by half to 120 minutes once the new 'super expressway' is built by the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI). Land acquisition process for the route that will reduce the distance between the cities by 60 km has been initiated, according to a report. 

Union Minister of Road Transport Nitin Gadkari had said on March 11 that the travel time between the outskirts of Gurgaon and periphery of Jaipur would be reduced to 90 minutes. The distance after the expressway is built would be 200 km. However, it would not be possible to cover the distance in 90 minutes by staying within legal speed limits. 

The route will stretch from Delhi-Gurgaon expressway near the Kherki Daula toll plaza in Gurgaon to Jaipur, and span seven districts. The highway would be six lane (three on each side). It would terminate at Chandwaji in Jaipur district.

While Gadkari had said that the time taken to travel would become 90 minutes, that seems unlikely. Even if the route takes 120 minutes to cover it would be a great improvement from the current four or five hours. 

The NHAI had earlier planned the route from near Indira Gandhi International airport to Daulatpura in Jaipur, but it was modified because of costs. The NHAI would need 1755.90 hectares of land for the expressway, unlike the earlier requirement of 2,800 hectares. 

The expressway will cost around Rs 6,500 crore to build, according to Union environment ministry's expert appraisal committee (EAC) for infrastructure projects. The ministry, which also analyses the cost of rehabilitation and resettlement, has said that it would require Rs 5,000 crore for that purpose as majority of the land needed is privately owned. 

"Land has been identified and the acquisition process has been initiated. There are two sections of the project in Haryana and Rajasthan. The acquisition process has started on the Haryana side," Ashok Sharma, project director, NHAI, said.

"The land use will be changed to Highway construction from agriculture, forest and settlement. There is no densely populated area along the proposed expressway. It is purely a virgin alignment and connectivity to built-up areas will be provided by underpasses and exit AND entry ramps," states the feasibility report of the project.