From Delhi to Jaipur in 120 minutes: The new super expressway is coming!

A 195kms long ‘super expressway’ will link Delhi and Jaipur as the land acquisition process for the same has been initiated. The e-way that is being built by the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) between Delhi and Jaipur will help reduce the distance between the two cities by around 40 km.

It is said that e-way that will be fully access-controlled to help people to travel to the Pink City in 120 minutes, which is way lesser than current journey time that takes a minimum of four and five hours.

The e-way, however, will not originate in Delhi. One will have to take a turn after the Kherki Daula toll plaza from the Delhi-Gurgaon expressway in Gurgaon to get to the new e-way. From the same point, it currently takes 235kms to get to Jaipur with a main carriageway of six lanes (three on each side).

The original plan was a 226kms greenfield expressway starting near the Indira Gandhi International airport and ending at Daulatpura in Jaipur. However, the new plan was chalked out because of cost factors and now the e-way will terminate at Chandwaji in Jaipur district. This move has also cut down the land requirement from 2,800 hectares to 1755.90 hectares.

“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,” said Ashok Sharma, project director, NHAI.

The e-way is expected to cost around Rs 6530 crore to build, and an additional cost of Rs 5000 crore will go into rehabilitation and resettlement of most of the privately-owned land that is yet to be acquired for the project according to documents submitted by the Union environment ministry’s expert appraisal committee (EAC) for infrastructure projects.

“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,” mentions the feasibility report of the project.

The e-way will pass through 423 villages in seven districts — Gurgaon, Jhajjar, Rewari, Mahendergarh, Alwar, Sikar and Jaipur.