23.8.10

Jaipur Ring Road snippets

The Jaipur ring road will be around 147 km in length in the new designs being prepared by the National Highway Authority of India.
The initial detailed project report (DPR) submitted by Reliance Infrastructure in 2007
suggested a 145-km-long ring road to be developed on public-private partnership model. Acquisition exercise for 47-km stretch was carried out between Agra Road and Ajmer Road for the southern zone. However, the urban development ministry later proposed a reduction in the length of Northern Zone by almost 40 km and assigned National Highway Authority of India to prepare a fresh DPR. Urban development ministry decided to hand over the project to JDA due to slow pace of work by NHAI. The highway authority has been unable to prepare the DPR in time and the designs being proposed have suggested an even longer ring road. The JDA officials are expected to incorporate the suggestions from NHAI.
A ring road had been proposed for Jaipur nearly a decade ago. However, the project had been transferred from one department to another. The JDA had previously tried to develop the project on PPP model and Reliance Infrastructure bagged the contract
in 2005. A 145-km long road costing nearly Rs 6,000 crore was proposed. The company, however, withdrew from the project in 2008 following a demand of Rs 2,700 crore reverse payment demanded by the government, the project the project came to a standstill. The urban development ministry later handed over the project to National Highway Authority of India in January. It was expected to begin work by June.
However, the Jaipur Development Authority once again has been given the responsibility. An understanding is yet to be achieved on developing the ring road path connecting Ajmer Road-Tonk Road-Agra Road. The work on the southern part is expected to begin by 2011.

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