Snapshot
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Currently, it takes nearly four hours to reach Jaipur from Gurugram during day time.
From November, you can reach the Pink City from Rajiv Chowk in Gurugram in less than two-and-a-half hours.
This follows the National Highway Authority of India (NHAI) making the 250-km Gurugram-Dausa stretch of the Delhi-Mumbai expressway (DME) operational.
Currently, it takes nearly four hours to reach Jaipur from Gurugram during day time.
Originally, NHAI had set November 2021 as deadline for the opening of the stretch, which was later extended to June 2022. The deadline kept on changing due to several factors including two spells of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Currently, the Delhi-Mumbai expressway takes off from Sohna in Gurugram. Commuters from Delhi heading to Jaipur can take the existing Delhi-Gurgaon Expressway upto Rajiv Chowk and then take the Gurgaon-Sohna elevated road, which gives direct access to the DME.
On the DME, they will need to get down at Dausa and then, take the existing 4-lane National Highway (NH) which connects Dausa to Jaipur. The existing NH link from Dausa has enough capacity for the current traffic flow.
The total distance through this route from Rajiv Chowk, in Gurugram, to Jaipur will be around 260 km.
Since the entire stretch from Rajiv Chowk to Dausa is access controlled, it will allow cars to travel at a speed of up to 120 kmph, which is the permissible limit.
Delhi-Mumbai expressway (DME)
The 1,380-km Delhi-Mumbai Expressway — passing through Delhi, Haryana, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Gujarat — aims to bring down travel time between the two cities to barely 12 hours, from the current 24 hours.
The eight-lane access-controlled expressway can be expanded to a 12-lane expressway depending on the volume of traffic in the future.
The expressway also features a spur connectivity to DND in Delhi, Jewar Airport in Greater Noida and Jawaharlal Nehru Port near Mumbai.
The entire expressway including the three spur connectivity is expected to be completed by June 2024. The Gurugram-Dausa stretch will be the first stretch of the country’s longest expressway to be operational.
Meanwhile, NHAI has also bid out a new greenfield six-lane highway from Bandikui on the expressway to Jaipur.
The link road has been planned to cater to quantum jump in the traffic on Delhi-Jaipur route, which may not be handled sufficiently by the existing highway link from Dausa.
The 67 km-link road will connect the expressway with Jaipur Ring Road. NHAI has already awarded the work for this project.