Financial institutions may shy away from Delhi-Jaipur expressway if land not acquired: Oscar Fernandes

NEW DELHI: Unless a major portion of the land is handed over in the construction of the proposed Delhi- Jaipur expressway, financial institutions could shy away from funding the project, Road Minister Oscar Fernandes has said.

The Ministry of Road Transport and Highways and NHAI ( National Highways Authority of India) plan to build an expressway, at an estimated cost of Rs 14,000 crore, to the Pink City with the aim of decongesting the journey.

" Delhi-Jaipur Expressway -- the work on this project is on, but unless 60 per cent of the land is not handed over, the work cannot start because the financial institution will not lend money," Fernandes told PTI.

However, the Minister did not elaborate on the matter any further.

He said, "The work is in progress on some stretches but at some places land acquisition is required and on those stretches it cannot be undertaken unless land is acquired."

The starting point in Delhi for the expressway, in all probability, would be the Indira Gandhi International Airport.

Ministry of Road Transport and Highways, in 2006-07, planned to construct 10 expressways but progress could be made only in two, namely Delhi-Jaipur and Delhi-Chandigarh.

However, the Delhi to Chandigarh expressway may now be re-aligned from Delhi to Ludhiana with a link to Chandigarh. This has been proposed mainly to cater to the heavy traffic on the Delhi-Ludhiana National Highway.

The government had accorded approval for building 1,000 km of expressways in the country in October, 2011.

The government will build seven expressways under the flagship highways building programme NHDP ( National Highway Development Programme) VI.

The remaining five projects are - 400 km Vadodara-Mumbai, 66 km Delhi-Meerut, Delhi-Agra, 277 km Bangalore-Chennai and 334 km Kolkata-Dhanbad.