Route identification for the ambitious 265 km Delhi-Jaipur Expressway on the line of Yamuna Expressway to Agra has been completed, the Road Transport and Highways Minister, Mr C. P. Joshi, has said.
“Land alignment (route-mapping) is final. We want an expressway on the PPP (Public-Private Partnership) model,” Joshi told PTI.
The starting point in the national capital for the expressway, for which the detailed project report has been finalised, would be the Indira Gandhi International Airport.
He said that alongside the expressway, with controlled access, will be a few nodes where real estate hubs would be developed.
“We have outlined alignments for developing real estate,” Mr Joshi said, adding that discussions are on with the State Governments of Delhi, Haryana and Rajasthan.
“We have to bring the State Governments on board. We have outlined alignments for developing real estate. Investment requirement is not finalised yet but it will have a new finance model,” he said.
Joshi said the project is very much “practical and pragmatic”.
Asked about the timeline for the project, the Minister said that he does not foresee problems in land acquisition because the requirement will not be not much.
Even for the real estate development projects, there would be a limited number of hubs.
Besides, the coordination with the States will be easier because all them are under Congress rule, he said.
Joshi said that though the Government had, in 2006-07, planned to construct 10 expressways, progress could be made only in two, namely Delhi-Jaipur and Delhi- Chandigarh.
However, for the Delhi-Chandigarh, the route alignment is yet to be finalised. “We are working on it,” he said.