Delhi to Gurgaon Expressway, New Delhi

One of the flyover sections of the Delhi to Gurgaon expressway completed in late 2004.

A section of the new expressway just outside Gurgaon.

The road has required the rerouting of services and also the disruption of many businesses and homes.

The route of the NH-8 of which the Delhi to Gurgaon expressway is part.

The expressway will provide excellent transport links in the region which is an important business area of India.

The 28km Delhi to Gurgaon expressway, opened in January 2008, is one of the most important road construction projects in India. The expressway connects both the domestic and the international airports to Delhi and Gurgaon.

The expressway has been 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 180,000 passenger car units a day and this is likely to increase by over 7% per annum.

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 on the northern, western, eastern and southern parts of India.

Road structure

The 28km road section was originally planned to begin at Rao Tula Ram Junction in Delhi (14.3km) and end at Manesar, on the outskirts of Gurgaon (42km). Later, it was extended by 3km due to a design change which incorporated a new eight-lane section from Dhaula Kuan to Rao Tula Ram Marg. The project road lies partly in Delhi (between 14.3km and 23.96km) and partly in Haryana (between 23.96km and 42km).

The expressway has 11 flyovers and overpasses, eight lanes between 14.30km and 36.63km and six lanes between 36.63km and 42km. There are four toll collection points including a 32-lane toll plaza on the Delhi-Haryana border. The toll plaza is the biggest in Asia.

The project, which started construction in June 2003 and had been delayed more than once due to legal problems over land acquisition and compensation for buildings having to be demolished, finally opened to public on 23 January 2008.

Four subways have also been constructed along the expressway. A foot over bridge has been opeend for public, while there are plans for construction of six more foot over bridges.

The expressway includes special elevated sections of road meant only for vehicles travelling at speeds of 80-100 km/h, while there is a 47km service road for local vehicles travelling at a slower pace. SOS telephones are located at every 1.5km. CCTVs have been installed on the expressway to monitor the traffic till the Indira Gandhi International Airport.

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, opened in March 2007
• South City junction – eight lanes, opened in March 2007
• Jharsa junction – eight lanes, opened in 2006
• 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 was 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 Rs10bn.

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.