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Bandikui spur construction completed, to reduce Delhi-Jaipur travel to 3 hrs
In a post on X, Union road transport and highways minister Nitin Gadkari said the spur will also ease congestion on National Highway-48 (Delhi-Chennai) and National Highway-21 (Jaipur-Agra)
The construction of the access-controlled 67-km four-lane greenfield Bandikui spur, part of the Delhi-Mumbai Expressway, has been completed at the cost of ₹2,016 crore, reducing the travel time between the national capital and Jaipur by 45 minutes to just three hours.
In a post on X, Union road transport and highways minister, Nitin Gadkari said the spur will also ease congestion on National Highway 48 (Delhi-Chennai) and National Highway 21 (Jaipur-Agra). He said the lack of a direct access route previously compelled road users to take longer and fuel-intensive journeys.
“Enhanced connectivity will not only facilitate tourism—boosting access to Jaipur’s renowned attractions such as Amer Fort and Jantar Mantar—but also promote regional economic development.” He said the new connectivity will lower logistics costs, reduce vehicular wear and tear, and create new markets for local farmers, particularly fruit and vegetable producers, by opening seamless access to Delhi’s vast consumer base.
The Delhi-Mumbai Expressway via Vadodara is expected to cut travel time between the financial and political capitals to just 10 hours from the existing 20. It has faced issues such as land acquisition hurdles and missed deadlines for completion, with the first being March 2024. The expressway is now expected to be opened in 2027.
The foundation stone for the expressway was laid in March 2019. Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated its first stretch between Sohna in Haryana and Dausa (Rajasthan) in February 2023.
The government in February told Parliament that there were some technical lapses in the construction, citing initial findings of an investigation. “...certain deficiencies have been observed in the quality of the SMA [Stone Mastic Asphalt] layer. The stretches of damaged SMA layer are to be relaid by the EPC contractors at their own cost.”
The government said the rectification work was being done by the concerned contractor at their own cost as per the mandate of maintenance and Defect Liability Period of 10 years, as envisaged in the contract agreement, and were maintaining the stretch in traffic-worthy condition.
