Taxi and tourist bus operators unhappy with the speed limit on newly inaugurated Delhi-Mumbai expressway

New Delhi : While Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated the first phase of the Delhi-Mumbai expressway that promises to cut down travel time from over 24 hours to just around 12 hours between the two cities, but the private taxi and luxury bus operators have protested demanding to remove the pre-installed speed governors.

The 246-km Delhi-Dausa-Lalsot section has been open to the public, reducing the travel time from the national capital to Jaipur from five hours to about three hours.

Delhi Taxi and Tourist Transporters Association has complained that while the private cars have been allowed the speed of 120 km/h, for taxis and tourist buses it is 80 km/h. However, the taxis and tourist buses will take about 22-24 hours travel time between the two cities.

Sanjay Samrat, the president of the umbrella body of tourist-ferrying taxis and buses with all-India permits operating from the national capital was quoted by the Indian Express saying, “Limiting their vehicles’ speed to 80 kmph while allowing private vehicles to go at speeds around 120 kmph is discriminatory”

“We have been flagging the issue of speed governors that limit our speeds to 80 kmph with everyone from the Delhi government to the Union Ministry of Road Transport and Highways for the last five years, but all we have got are assurances,” Samrat said.

“Despite the expressway, tourists will still prefer railway or flight travel to Mumbai because they will want to save on time instead,” Samrat argued in the run-up to the upcoming G20 summit during which thousands of foreign delegates are expected to visit the city over several months.

Several cities along the route of the 1380-kilometer, eight-lane motorway will reap the benefits of the road and see reduced travel times as a result. The preliminary budget for the expressway’s construction is Rs 98,000 crore. The Ministry of Road Transport and Highways claims that this will shorten the current distance between Delhi and Mumbai by 180 kilometres (from 1,424 km to 1,242 km).