Government should increase the speed limit to 100 kmph on the Yamuna Expressway that connects industrial cities of Western UP, says IFTRT, the transport research body.
The road, to be operated by Jaypee Infrastructure, connects NOIDA with Palwal and Agra. The speed limit on other expressways including Mumbai-Pune, Ahmedabad-Baroda, the Delhi-Noida-Delhi (DND, in which IL&FS has a stake) toll road is 80 kmph.
The demand to increase speed limit surprisingly comes from Indian Foundation of Transport Research and Training (IFTRT), known for its stance on implementing traffic rules.
But, the research body has indicated that the speed limit should be fixed based on the expressway design and provides such examples.
Mumbai – Pune Expressway, which has a number of tunnels and sharp curves – has the same speed limit as Ahmedabad-Baroda and DND, which do not have any sharp alignments.
“It would be appropriate that in its initial first three months of operations, the Yamuna Expressway should have identical speed limit and to be raised to 100 kmph at later stage,” stated IFTRT while calling for zero tolerance approach against overloading.
Unlike, Maharashtra and Gujarat, the Western UP annually experiences heavy fog during winter months and therefore, the highway petrol authority and concessionaire must plan the traffic management under these severe driving conditions. Therefore, there is mandatory need to put up CCTV cameras all along the 165 km stretch from Noida to Agra on this Expressway.