An expressway is a controlled-access highway; it is a highway that controls entrances to it and exits from it by incorporating the design of the slip roads for entry and exit into the design of the highway itself. Access-control should not be confused with collection of toll. An expressway may be free to use and may not collect toll at all.
Expressways are the highest class of roads in the Indian Road Network. These are six or eight lane highways with controlled-access. India has approximately 942 km expressways. New expressways are also under construction one of them is the Delhi – Jaipur expressway. The length of this expressway is about 235 kilometers and it would pass through Rajasthan, Haryana and Delhi.
The Government had announced 1,000 km of expressway along the corridors of Vadodara-Mumbai and six others from which the balance 600 km were to be selected. Delhi-Jaipur was one such corridor. Further decision for Delhi-Jaipur expressway is yet to be taken.
However, Delhi-Jaipur section has been approved for six laning and the Build, Operate and Transfer (BOT) concession for the project has been awarded in February, 2008 under National Highways Development Project (NHDP) Phase-V.
The Union highways ministry and Planning Commission are fast-tracking a proposal to construct a new 261km expressway linking the two cities that will take the load off the existing road.
Though road transport and highways minister C P Joshi had last month announced a plan to build two new high-speed links from the capital to Jaipur and Chandigarh, the Pink City stretch has been prioritized. This new alignment road will be 4 to 6-laned and is estimated to cost Rs 10,000 crore.
It is built on the line of Yamuna Expressway to Agra. This expressway is built on the PPP, where PPP stands for Public-Private-Partnership model. The starting point of this expressway is from the national capital, for which the detailed project report as finalised, would be the Indira Gandhi International Airport. Alongside the expressway with controlled access there would be few nodes where real estate hubs would be developed.
The expressway must connect with the Manesar-Bawal, Kushkhera-Bhiwadi- Nimrana nodes which are being developed as part of the Delhi-Mumbai industrial corridor and other national highway networks.
Among the possible alignments being discussed is starting the expressway from the outskirts of Delhi and terminating on the Jaipur bypass, but there's no consensus on this yet.
At present, NH-8 is the only high speed link between Delhi and Jaipur and the increasing congestion has become a cause of concern. Officials said the new expressway alignment will be fixed by studying satellite images and digital terrain models, and not through actual ground reconnaissance and survey.
The proposed Delhi-Jaipur Expressway is likely to branch out from the Delhi-Gurgaon Expressway. Sources in the highways ministry said that they are zeroing in on the stretch between Mahipalpur and Gurgaon toll plaza from where the elevated portion of the expressway would begin in Delhi. It is expected that the expressway project could push large residential and commercial developments along the corridor in Haryana and Rajasthan.
Haryana and Delhi governments and the ministry are close to achieving a consensus over the alignment. The proposed six-lane expressway would pass close to the airport and connect important locations such as Manesar, Rewari and Kothputli. Haryana government has submitted three of its major development plans that will fall on the proposed stretch and hence there is a need to prepare the expressway plan in a manner that these projects are not affected.
To make the project financially viable, the government is considering giving land as a sweetener to the private developer, who will raise finance for this high capital-intensive expressway.
Officials said they are also looking into the proposal of either the developer buying land close to the expressway or the government acquiring land and giving it to the developer for some years on lease. They said they are looking into the option of auctioning the access roads to the expressway from real estate and commercial projects, which would come up along the expressway.
The proposed expressway not only envisages providing high-speed, access-controlled traffic flow between Delhi and Jaipur connecting important towns in Delhi, Haryana and Rajasthan, but also being a catalyst for economic development of the region as a whole.
The proposed Delhi-Jaipur Expressway is expected to push large residential and commercial developments along the corridor in Haryana and Rajasthan. Proposed six-lane Expressway would pass close to the Airport and connect important locations such as Manesar, Rewari and Kotputli.
With the growing number of lifestyle townships, commercial and retail hubs, the destination is definitely attracting prospective buyers, developers and investors with an added advantage for the residents of the location and pollution-free environment. By and large, the upcoming sectors seem to have huge potential and with developing infrastructure facilities, these areas will fetch good appreciation.
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