Delhi to Gurgaon Expressway, New Delhi, India

The 28km Delhi to Gurgaon expressway is one of the most important road construction projects currently underway in India. The road is being constructed by the Delhi Development Authority (DDA), the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI), the Central Road Research Institute (CRRI) and the Haryana Urban Development Authority (HUDA).

The project comprises the widening and conversion of the Delhi to Gurgaon section of the National Highway (NH)-8 into a six- to eight-lane access-controlled highway on a Build, Operate, and Transfer (BOT) basis.

The Delhi-Gurgaon region has the highest density of vehicles in India. As a commercial hub of Northern India, it is already on one of the busiest traffic arteries in the National Highways network. The highway provides important links to the western ports and the North Indian markets, as well as the newly developed townships and localities such as Dwarka.

Delhi has one of the highest per capita incomes in India and also has the largest number of motorised vehicles. The Delhi–Gurgaon section of highway carries more than 150,000 passenger car units a day and this is likely to increase by over 7% per annum.

The expressway will be a great improvement, allowing the travel time between Dhaula Kaun in New Delhi and Haldirams Resort in Gurgaon to be cut from the current one hour down to 15 minutes.

GOLDEN QUADRILATERAL HIGHWAYS PROJECT

This project is actually part of the larger Golden Quadrilateral (GQ) Project, which is the largest expressway project in India. It is the first phase of the National Highways Development Project (NHDP), and consists of building 5,846km of four- to six-lane expressways connecting Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata and Chennai.

ROAD STRUCTURE

The 28km road section runs from Rao Tula Ram Junction in Delhi (14.3km) and ends on the outskirts of Gurgaon (42km). The project road lies partly in Delhi (between 14.3km and 23.96km) and partly in Haryana (between 23.96km and 42km).

The project will have 11 flyovers and overpasses, eight lanes between 14.30km and 36.63km and six lanes between 36.63km and 42km. There will also be a 32-lane toll plaza constructed on the Haryana border and three other toll collection points along the 28km stretch.

The project is now expected to be extended by 3km due to a design change which incorporates a new eight-lane section from Dhaula Kuan to Rao Tula Ram Marg.

The project, which started construction in June 2003, has already been delayed more than once due to legal problems over land acquisition and compensation for buildings having to be demolished and is now expected to be completed by June 2007.

Once completed the elevated sections will only allow vehicles capable of 80km/h to 100km/h speeds. Local and slow moving traffic will have to use lanes running under the elevated sections. The 47km of service roads will be able to cater to local traffic without interfering with the through traffic of the expressway.

FLYOVERS AND INTERSECTIONS

The expressway involved the design and construction of the following flyovers, which included precast, segmental superstructures, Pre-Stressed Concrete (PSC) voided slab superstructures and cast-in-situ PSC continuous superstructures:

• Rao Tula Ram junction -three lanes
• Palam junction - three lanes
• Mahipalpur junction - eight lanes
• Radison / IGI junction - four lanes
• Rajokri junction - eight lanes, opened in 2006
• Shankar Chowk / HUDA Chowk - eight lanes
• IFFCO Chowk - eight lanes, 90% completed; will open February 2007
• Small flyover near IFFCO Chowk - eight lanes
• South City junction - eight lanes, 90% complete; will open February 2007
• Jharsa junction - eight lanes, 90% complete; will open February 2007
• Rajiv Chowk - eight lanes, opened 2006

CONTRACTORS

This project was awarded to the consortium of Jaiprakash Industries Ltd (JIL) and DS Construction Ltd (DSCL) and is being implemented by Jaypee DSC Ventures Ltd, a SPV Company formed for the purpose.

The project was awarded on the basis of a negative grant, where project contractors have actually agreed to pay the Government Rs610m for the right to operate the toll access to the new expressway. M/s Rites Ltd and Sheladia LR Kadiyali are an Indian-US joint venture also involved in the construction of parts of the expressway project.

FINANCE

The finance for the road project was arranged by SREI International Finance Ltd and the cost is estimated at Rs7.5bn (the costs having increased by about Rs2bn since the project started).

SREI's shareholders include the International Finance Corporation, Washington, (a World Bank Group Company), FMO (owned by the government of Netherlands) and DEG (owned by the German government through the financial institution KfW). The Belgium government through Belgium Investment Overseas (BIO) also participated.

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