[amartya_bhp]

Originally Posted by pf007

Ujjain - Kota - Niwai - Delhi.

Came yesterday through this mode, pls if you need more details.

Don't miss the unparalleled spurge of excitement driving on the NE4 before it gets crowded.

Hi, can you please share more details about the road conditions, hotels, rest areas and exit/entry points for this route using DME? I plan to travel from Indore to South Delhi using this in May and will travel with my 12 yr old kid in a sedan. Thanks

[pf007]

Originally Posted by amartya_bhp

Hi, can you please share more details about the road conditions, hotels, rest areas and exit/entry points for this route using DME? I plan to travel from Indore to South Delhi using this in May and will travel with my 12 yr old kid in a sedan. Thanks

Hi, I assume you are familiar with Indore - Ujjain.
Ujjain to Jhalawar (150 Km) is single lane but newly laid state highway with no reasonable rest rooms or stopovers. Jhalawar - Kota is freshly baked 6 lane concrete which will land you at Kota in 40 Mins (80 KM). 5 Hrs to Kota in sedate mode.
At Kota you may take any food stop depending on ur budget or take the Hanging bridge to land directly at Jaipur highway. (Pit stop: Dhanva Resort) but distance would be higher than passing the city. Kota to Niwai would be 2.5 hrs with excellent road. (Food Stop before Niwai @ Rama's resort). Last stretch from Niwai to Delhi is already discussed here in detail.
Any further specific help, please DM me. Thanks

[ketan4renault]

Good morning,

Which will be the best route to travel from Delhi to Udaipur?

I was considering taking the new DME till Lalsot and than follow the google maps till Udaipur or should we stick to the old route.

[pf007]

Originally Posted by ketan4renault

Good morning,

Which will be the best route to travel from Delhi to Udaipur?

I was considering taking the new DME till Lalsot and than follow the google maps till Udaipur or should we stick to the old route.

Taking DME till Lalsot would be faster then going Jaipur Via Dausa.
Please take note that Jaipur - Dausa is closed since 3 days due to another community reservation demand.

[vharihar]

Originally Posted by pf007

Taking DME till Lalsot would be faster then going Jaipur Via Dausa.
Please take note that Jaipur - Dausa is closed since 3 days due to another community reservation demand.

Related: I am planning a road trip from Delhi to Ranthambore this weekend. I plan to take the DME till Lalsot, then ordinary highway (NH24/NH1) till Sawai Madhopur. This is the best route I suppose?

(I expect I'll be on the DME for 200 kms, and on NH24/NH1 for 65 kms)

How is the road from Lalsot to Sawai Madhopur? I believe it is 2-laned?

Originally Posted by iamitp

So I did end up taking the NE4 from Delhi to Jaipur and back. Here are some observations:

1. The link from NH8 is very smooth with the newly built Sohna Road flyover. We used the restroom at Ambience Mall just as we entered Gurgaon. Another option would be 32nd Milestones. This was at 8 AM.

2. The toll plazas are huge so traffic moves fast. Toll paid - Rs. 615 one way.

3. The expressway surface is great to drive on, and barring 1 patch of work and half a dozen undulations, one can cruise at 120 KMPH all the way across. We did 111 KMPH and my Creta DCT clocked a mileage of about 17 KMPL.

4. Almost all the washrooms and rest facilities on the Haryana side an unoperational. Once you cross over to Rajasthan, there is an operational R&R every half an hour or so. Very basic food facilities (we didn't eat) and dirty washrooms (insects, some had no power, overflowing water, pads on the floor etc) - maintained by the IOCL dealers. Hope IOCL or MoP&NG/MoRTH takes notice and pulls up the dealer or TM in charge.

I too plan to cruise at 110 kmph max. So looks like rest stops and fuel stops aren't too many and aren't in good condition (unless thats changed in the intervening 1 month since your post).

Any other travel tips welcome.

[vharihar]

Originally Posted by abhishekjoshi84

Alright folks, latest update on DME progress are out. You can find official status report below:

http://nhai.gov.in/nhai/sites/defaul...-Mar-23_v1.pdf

Here arey observations comparing from previous report (dated 30th Dec).

1. Work from Lalsot till Sawai Madhopur is completed
...
Also waiting for them to take a call on opening traffic from Lalsot to Sawai Madhopur and full 245 KM section in MP which is completed. It would be disappointing if they keep that section closed for another 1 year because of ongoing work in Rajasthan and Gujrat packages. 245 km is a good distance and they can recover good amount of money in toll in 1 year. Also, I am not sure if roads will stay in top shape if not used at all for 1-1.5 years.

Ah, just saw this now. So looks like it's completed till Sawai Madhopur but they've kept the Lalsot-Sawai Madhopur stretch closed for some reason. Anyway, thanks for this post.

[ferrarirules]

Originally Posted by vharihar

Related: I am planning a road trip from Delhi to Ranthambore this weekend. I plan to take the DME till Lalsot, then ordinary highway (NH24/NH1) till Sawai Madhopur. This is the best route I suppose?

(I expect I'll be on the DME for 200 kms, and on NH24/NH1 for 65 kms)

How is the road from Lalsot to Sawai Madhopur? I believe it is 2-laned?

I travelled to Ranthamore via this route on Apr 3 to Apr 5 weekend. The road from Lalsot exit to Ranthambore. First is a 4 laned National highway till Lalsot. You have to cross Lalsot town after that it is a two lane state highway. It is very well maintained and wide. The rest stops were fine. Dhaba style food was available including maggi and stuff.

[pf007]

Originally Posted by vharihar

Related: I am planning a road trip from Delhi to Ranthambore this weekend. I plan to take the DME till Lalsot, then ordinary highway (NH24/NH1) till Sawai Madhopur. This is the best route I suppose?

(I expect I'll be on the DME for 200 kms, and on NH24/NH1 for 65 kms)

235 KM to be precise. You have to take force exit to the DME.

How is the road from Lalsot to Sawai Madhopur? I believe it is 2-laned?

Its a 2 lane decent state highway. You will touch SWM probably in 60 mins.


I too plan to cruise at 110 kmph max. So looks like rest stops and fuel stops aren't too many and aren't in good condition (unless thats changed in the intervening 1 month since your post).

Any other travel tips welcome.

You dont need anything on DME if you are a Petro-head. Its a drive to remember specially with such sparse traffic till the time more cities are connected.

[saurabhb2000]

I need to travel from gurgaon and reach Jaipur by about 8 am . Is it safe to start at 3 :30 AM and take DME at these hours ?

[vharihar]

Last weekend being a long weekend, I made an impromptu plan to go to Ranthambore National Park (RNP). From Greater Noida, the optimal route shown by GMaps was via the till-date-operationalized-stretches of the Delhi-Mumbai Expwy (DME). I am a road as well as train buff, and I also had a long standing wish to travel in the Tejas Rajdhani Exp. RNP is in Sawai Madhopur (SWM), and luckily, despite being an on-the-spot decision literally 1-2 days before the journey date, train tickets were available, onward as well as return (SWM has its own quota I guess). On the flip side, I also had an urge to try out the recently opened stretches of the DME (opened just 1-2 months ago). Eventually, DME prevailed, and I did the road trip in my car.

Left Greater Noida on Fri May 5th at 8 am. Took the Eastern Peripheral Expwy (EPE) and headed clockwise. After about an hour on the EPE (and briefly on the WPE), I exited at the DME interchange. It’s a nice interchange, quite expansive, with a roundabout too in between (BTW: EPE and WPE are in bad condition, an insult to the term “expressway”, possibly one of the few blackmarks against Nitin Gadkari. I hope they tear down some sub-sections of the EPE/WPE and rebuild them).

On the onward journey, because I was driving on the DME for the first time, I cruised at a sedate 100 kmph (the speed limit being 120 kmph). Nor did I stop anywhere for clicking pictures. But on the return, I cruised at 120 kmph and stopped to take pics. All the pics below are from my return journey.

Safety disclaimer: Lest I mislead fellow Team-BHP’ers, I wish to clarify that whenever I stopped, I stopped well in the shoulder kissing the leftmost edge of the shoulder, always with my hazard lights flashing. These halts were brief, just long enough to click pics (atmost 4-5 minutes), and I took care to stand in front of the car facing oncoming traffic for the most part (so my car serves as a shield and also so I can take evasive action in case of a careening vehicle; All these are tips learned from ample driving in the US, who, to their credit, take safety extremely seriously and it certainly has rubbed off on me). On the Dausa-Lalsot stretch where traffic was extremely sparse (read on), I did the not-recommended thing of crossing the carriageway on foot to take a pic of the median. Though I did this very safely, I will not do it again.

That being said, below is my review of the DME (which BTW is numbered NE4, NE being short for National Expwy I believe):
1) The median is very wide (strip of land that separates the north-and south-bound carriageways), almost as wide as Bangalore’s ORR (both carriageways put together), and it has plantations on it, along with piped/drip irrigation. For water source, they seemed to have dug borewells at periodic intervals in the same median. The wide median is also recessed and inclined towards the center line, to help with drainage as well as slowing down a careening vehicle that loses control and leaves its carriageway. (Somewhere I recall reading that they plan to use the medians for either train or electric commercial vehicle lanes with overhead catenary. I hope they never do that. The wide median with plantations, as it presently is, is very pleasing to the eyes)
2) There are several well-planned rest areas, all well laid out. But because it has been just recently opened, not too many easting joints have set up business as yet. Perhaps a logistics problem exists here, as in finding employees to man the place, because the DME runs through vast empty stretches, and finding trained local staff could be a challenge. They’d need to be ferried from the nearest big town. I’m sure the motivation for that will increase once more stretches of the DME open up and traffic thereby increases.
3) The rest areas also have truck stops, and they are very nicely laid out too, and well patronized.
4) The route was desolate in many places, and I could see parts of the Aravalli mountain range. Even though barren, it has a beauty to it, a good reminder about how beautiful our country is. The landscape also reminded me of Interstate Hwy 80 in the US when it passes through similar desolate patches in Nevada, except that that is 2+2=4 laned whereas the DME is 4+4=8-laned.
5) Chainage numbers are marked at every 100 meters. And there were speed guns along with speed indicators, though they seemed turned off at most places
6) Traffic was moderate between NCR and the Jaipur exit (near Dausa). To the south of it (between Dausa and Lalsot), traffic was sparse.
7) I had prepared myself to exit at the Lalsot exit (the southernmost point upto which the DME is officially operational), and then drive on 65-kms long 2-laned NH24/NH1 stretch till SWM. But I later learned that the Lalsot-Kushtala stretch of the DME is 80% built, and though not officially opened yet, it is drivable; and I was advised by my hotel to take it (Kushtala is just 12 kms south of SWM). For this, one needs to exit off at Lalsot, negotiate a roundabout-based interchange (seems to be the template of interchanges on the DME), follow the signages at the roundabout and immediately reenter the DME at a non-operational toll plaza (non-operational because the Lalsot-Kushtala is not opened yet). This was very helpful, and I could cover the distance very fast. I mention it here because it’s likely not many know about this trick.
8) At several places, the alignment is straight as an arrow for long distances. Often in such stretches, I could see mirage-like visuals on the tarmac (probably due to heat gradients), especially when the road gently dipped and gently rose again, where lane markings far out in the distance (2-3 kms ahead) would play tricks with your eyes. Not a safety issue at all, because the visual resolves itself long before you reach the dip. And it’s a very gently dip. It’s just that straight stretches are so long that one can see for several kms ahead. But the mirage is unmistakable and an interesting sight to see.
9) Mugging-safety: When the MPE (Mumbai-Pune-Expwy) was first opened, there were a few mugging/robbery incidents, which reduced over the years as traffic built up. I knew that the DME sees sparse traffic since the full stretch is not built yet, so before I set out I was very apprehensive about safety. But after my drive last weekend, I can say that safety concerns are quite unfounded, it seemed quite safe, atleast in the day time. Let me not jinx it though! Having said that, I would prefer it if there was more patrolling of the stretch, that’d for sure make it even safer.
10) Wildlife: Unfortunately lots of butterflies were getting swatted by vehicles. I think the local wildlife will take time to adjust to the new “danger zones” for them, which earlier was absent. I recall this happening on the MPE also. Indeed, I almost ran over a giant lizard (probably a ghorpad), luckily I missed it by 6-7 inches. And unluckily, I think my windscreen top left corner may have swatted a low flying bird that suddenly came in the way.
11) I don’t recall seeing even a single case of overspeeding, so that is good. The posted speed limit was 120 kmph (which is fine, the road design supports it easily, especially for 95% of the stretch, read on about “downsides”).

Some downsides I could note:
1. The surface quality in a few places could be better. In 95% of the stretch it is very good, but in the remaining 5% of the stretches one feels a lot of undulations, especially at high speeds. I’m sure there are instruments to measure the smoothness of a surface. Before certifying a stretch, NHAI should use such instruments to measure/quantify the smoothness.
2. Design of merges/exits could be better in some places. A dedicated merge/exit lane MUST always be provided with a runway length of 300-400 meters or so. This was provided in some places but not in some other places, where the incoming lane joined at an awkward angle and is a recipe for an accident. Somehow NHAI babus don’t seem to have the training about exit/merge lanes construction, the different lane striping that it needs, etc
3. Lane marking was excellent but studs/Botts-dots were missing on the lane markings. This is very useful as it helps awaken a driver who dozes off and starts drifting (highway hypnosis), playing the role of rumbler strips. Even if not dozing off, it also acts as an incentive for people to stay well and truly within their lanes
4. While the median is wide and sloped, it would be even better if crash barriers were installed along it. Crash barriers are installed in the outer edges of each carriageway, which is good. But they also need to be installed along the median. This would greatly reduce fatalities and also help prevent damage to the median landscaping
5. Lack of courteous driving: This is a unique Indian problem. While everything about the road construction is good, there were a human-etiquette problems, viz.:
a) Occasionally a car overtook me and cut me close in front of me, even though there was nothing ahead of it for 1-2 kms! This is a dangerous practice especially at 100+ kmph speeds, and smacks of a lack of courtesy in driving habits
b) Couple of times I saw people stopping in a lane, to talk to their fellow car, etc! They seemed complacent by the fact that there are so many lanes, so others would see them and drive in the other lanes. Very unacceptable, this is an dangerous practice, especially on an expy at high speeds.

While one can’t blame NHAI for these, but it does fall under MoRTH’s arena to do some kind of driver education nationwide along with rigorous driver-license issuance processes, else all this great infrastructure can become deathtraps.

All in all, it was a fabulous experience, kudos to Nitin Gadkari!

A few pictures below …

[vharihar]

Originally Posted by saurabhb2000

I need to travel from gurgaon and reach Jaipur by about 8 am . Is it safe to start at 3 :30 AM and take DME at these hours ?

I wouldn't recommend it.

[Lobogris]

Originally Posted by saurabhb2000

I need to travel from gurgaon and reach Jaipur by about 8 am . Is it safe to start at 3 :30 AM and take DME at these hours ?

Should be ok as the first light of dawn starts by 4:00 to 4:30am during this time. You only have to watch out for the first 30 minutes and it will likely take you that long to navigate from Jaipur to the expressway. In addition, check on the time difference between the existing expressway and DME at that time. It might not be much and if that is the case, you can take the normal highway.

[saurabhb2000]

Originally Posted by Lobogris

Should be ok as the first light of dawn starts by 4:00 to 4:30am during this time. You only have to watch out for the first 30 minutes and it will likely take you that long to navigate from Jaipur to the expressway. In addition, check on the time difference between the existing expressway and DME at that time. It might not be much and if that is the case, you can take the normal highway.

Thanks everyone who replied. I took the DME on my way back from Jaipur to Delhi in evening. Overall experience nice due to no traffic and faster speeds.. However I would rate the surface quality 7 out of 10. Quite a number of surface undulations and minor bumps and it felt like bit overrated

[Totoro11]

Originally Posted by abhishekjoshi84

You can find official status report below:

http://nhai.gov.in/nhai/sites/defaul...-Mar-23_v1.pdf

1. Work from Lalsot till Sawai Madhopur is completed.
Also waiting for them to take a call on opening traffic from Lalsot to Sawai Madhopur and full 245 KM section in MP which is completed.

Originally Posted by vharihar

Ah, just saw this now. So looks like it's completed till Sawai Madhopur but they've kept the Lalsot-Sawai Madhopur stretch closed for some reason. Anyway, thanks for this post.

Originally Posted by vharihar

7) I had prepared myself to exit at the Lalsot exit (the southernmost point upto which the DME is officially operational), and then drive on 65-kms long 2-laned NH24/NH1 stretch till SWM. But I later learned that the Lalsot-Kushtala stretch of the DME is 80% built, and though not officially opened yet, it is drivable; and I was advised by my hotel to take it (Kushtala is just 12 kms south of SWM). For this, one needs to exit off at Lalsot, negotiate a roundabout-based interchange (seems to be the template of interchanges on the DME), follow the signages at the roundabout and immediately reenter the DME at a non-operational toll plaza (non-operational because the Lalsot-Kushtala is not opened yet). This was very helpful, and I could cover the distance very fast. I mention it here because it’s likely not many know about this trick.

Folks any updates on the stretch beyond Lalsot? I am planning to drive to Kota and exited at Lalsot last time, but your posts have given me more hope.

@vharihar how far could you go after getting back on the expressway after Lalsot? Is there any option to connect back to NH-52 after this unofficially open stretch?

[vharihar]

Originally Posted by Totoro11

@vharihar how far could you go after getting back on the expressway after Lalsot? Is there any option to connect back to NH-52 after this unofficially open stretch?

I could go all the way to Sawai Madhopur, just south of it, near a place called Jaisapura, where it cut NH552.

You can see it in Google Maps satellite view