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Journalism of Courage
This is an archive article published on February 13, 2023
Speed governors on taxis, tourist buses render Delhi-Mumbai Expressway useless: Taxi union
Delhi Taxi and Tourist Transporters Association has complained that limiting their vehicles' speed to 80 kmph while allowing private vehicles to go at speeds around 120 kmph is discriminatory.
The 1380-km long, eight-lane expressway is also set to benefit various cities along the way, cutting down travel times between them as well. (PTI)
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Speed governors on taxis, tourist buses render Delhi-Mumbai Expressway useless: Taxi union
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Though the Delhi-Mumbai expressway promises to cut down travel time from over 24 hours to just around 12 hours between the two cities for private vehicles, it will still be around 20-22 hours for taxis and tourist buses with pre-installed speed governors, Delhi Taxi and Tourist Transporters Association has complained.
Sanjay Samrat, the president of the umbrella body of tourist-ferrying taxis and buses with all-India permits operating from the national capital, said 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.
On Sunday (February 12), Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated the first phase of the Delhi-Mumbai expressway. The 246-km Delhi-Dausa-Lalsot section will be open to the public, reducing the travel time from the national capital to Jaipur from five hours to about three hours.
The 1380-km long, eight-lane expressway is also set to benefit various cities along the way, cutting down travel times between them as well. The expressway is being constructed with an initial budget of Rs 98,000 crore. According to claims by the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways, it will reduce the distance between Delhi and Mumbai by 180 km (from 1,424 km to 1,242 km).
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