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-   -   Eastern Peripheral Expressway Delhi and its 120 kmph speed limit (https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/street-experiences/278545-eastern-peripheral-expressway-delhi-its-120-kmph-speed-limit-5.html)

For context:

-> I have driven on the Eastern Peripheral Expressway, Western Peripheral Expressway, Delhi Mumbai (Gurgaon to Jaipur), Yamuna Expressway, and Agra to Lucknow Expressway

-> I have done these in a Skoda Superb, a Mercedes E-class, and an Audi Q7

-> I have also extensively driven across the US and Europe

Now with the context set, here are my two cents:

-> Overall rating - While these expressways are a step ahead since they are access-restricted, the surface is nothing to write home about. In-fact, they are outright embarrassing in many parts (barring the Agra-Lucknow expressway which can give any western highway surface a run for its money).

-> What is wrong - The problems are multi-fold; First, the worst part is the joints for bridges etc - these are far from ideal and the alignment is nothing but poor. Next, the surface itself is not smooth, and is eroding far before its service life.

-> Relevance of vehicle - Yes, vehicle matters but a good road will allow even a Dzire to comfortably cruise at 120Kmph. Countries like Germany also have cheap vehicles and they cruise at those speeds without any discomfort to the passengers.

-> Ranking: Agra-Lucknow > Yamuna >> Delhi-Mumbai > Eastern Peripheral > Western Peripheral

-> Why is it like this:: Now, this is where it gets tricky. How can we have a brilliant expressway like the Agra-Lucknow expressway that has near-perfect joints and a surface that has weathered like a charm. And then, almost a decade later, our flagship projects such as the Delhi-Mumbai highway not meeting expectations. I would look at the companies that built these surfaces (wink wink look at the correlation between electoral bond contributions and surface quality, I am looking at you Megha Engineering). So, corruption is definitely one - a company will either invest in a good engineering team and high-quality materials, or thousands of crores to line the pockets of politicians. It can't do both especially if it did not win fair and square. There are endless other reasons pertaining to culture, incompetence, lack of talent, but I feel like those end up mattering less if the right incentives are in place and can be overcome.

The lack of attention to detail is appalling, and until we as a country start focusing on that - we will keep building subpar infra that we have to deal with for the decades to come.

There is no fund released to the contractor, the government just awards the project and with that in hand, these contracting companies will get loans and start construction.

With the amount released from Banks, they have to grease the mechanism (politicos & officials) for approvals, whatever amount remains they will do construction with it. The rest of the amount will be given to them (after construction) via toll booth collection. The total expenditure for the construction will be like 25-35% (sometimes even lesser) of the original project value.

The source details can't be shared, but it was mostly from Contractor side, confirmed by bureaucrats side. This was 5 years back, don't know the current scenario. One Senior Bureaucrat residing in my area who can't even type a line in our WhatsApp group has an Innova, Bolero & Brezza and lot of stories from his family about owning lands, estates & shopping malls and all.

When people speak and compare with Autobahn :uncontrol, so much corruption, we are light years away from any good things. we are the fools, I mean literally - we not only pay the taxes but also for tolls. The Seionr Bureaucrat whom I mentioned above - All his vehicles are toll exempted !

That pretty much explains the scenario you are facing, and believe me you are not alone. My uncle previously owned one too which he like most others lovingly called "boat", since his highway usage was very high on the Pune - Bangalore highway he switched to an Innova. In today`s world of gadgets and gizmo laden vehicles, there are still pretty decent cars out there which have great highway manners. I can understand that the road is not perfect too, it never is at least for the first version of it.

I did Pune - Leh and back in my Polo GT TSi and Maruti Suzuki Brezza via Agra, Delhi and Amritsar. Crossed and drove almost on all our newly built highways as well as Expressways. Totally agree on one count that 120 KMPH is easily doable without a fuss but just with a bit of common sense in areas but still I do not feel comfortable chugging my GT beyond 90KMPH in any of the stretches. At times I roll it up a bit but NEVER comfortably cross 100 KMPH at any cost. Car is simply terrific and able to go beyond my sensibilities stop me from doing it.

My Cruise Control is always fixed at 90KMPH beyond that it seriously becomes dangerous even on Mumbai Pune express barring few stretches where you can comfortably do the approved speed of 100 KMPH.

I travelled well over 50 KMs in a friend's brand new Mercedes Benz E class and could feel the bumps just as much as I do in my well-maintained Fiat Linea! They have added a layer of bitumen at all the places where the culverts and bridges join the rest of the road and while this has improved things a bit, on the whole, travelling on the EPE remains a nauseating experience, unless you keep the speed moderate! Also, although there is street lighting on the road, I have always found the illumination less than ideal. During a recent trip, I also noticed that a large number of lights were dysfunctional. I also found the slip road that connects EPE to the Ambala-Delhi highway (while coming from Ambala side) broken and potholed.

I do every year 8-9 visits to my native from my work city i.e., Jaipur to Moradabad(U.P.) and I experience a variety of Highways and Expressways in this journey.
The worst is the Delhi Peripheral Expressways(western or eastern). It is true that there are unevenness through out the express way. There is no way someone will reach 120kmph without feeling they are in a washing machine.

I start from Jaipur and experience buttery smooth express wayfrom Dausa to Palwal(nearby Gurgaon) and then faces a bumpy ride on the Delhi Peripheral expressways.
After Expressway ends in Dasna, the Renewed NH 9 until Moradabad is again smooth and comfortable to reach 120.

Hey, just curious - why include mumbai-nagpur expressway in the example? That road is superb, in my opinion, and even 120 feels slow on that expressway. I did not come across any potholes or mis-matched expansion joints on this road. While I have not driven on the delhi-mumbai expressway, if it is anything like Samruddhi, then I dont see why 120 is not doable, since I see a lot vehicles doing 120 on Samruddhi and I have myself done it for the entire stretch, without any issues.

To some of the other comments advocating slow speeds -
My simple understanding of limits is, if it is allowed, then every vehicle eligible to get on the road, should be able to run at that speed consistently. Whether one actually drives at that speed is at their discretion but if most people cant drive at that speed, due to road conditions, then the safe limit cant be set as 120. Giving examples of snow covered road or rainy conditions, or hurricane/tornado situations is useless since it is common sense to account for adverse weather condtions which are temporary and no one really has any control over those. You cant factor bad weather when setting general speed limits.

I drove on the new highway from Lalsot to Gurgaon on Sunday - consistently at 115 kmph, on the new highway. With 2 kids in the rear seat. I do not get where these complaints are coming from. I can understand EPE and WPE has / had some pothole issues (bigger problem being randomly lying trucks), but a large number of new highways are absolutely comparable with anything in Europe or US.

I have traveled through EPE many times when going to Himachal. Both on bike & car. Bike was allowed, or I assumed it was in the beginning, so I did that once. The bike was BMW 310 GS & if you guys know it has the softest suspension in the world so the joints or uneven surfaces were hardly felt.

With a car (Alto, Baleno, Ciaz) it always felt a bit uncomfortable above 100kmph. As members mentioned you can do 120kmph all day but is not very confidence-inspiring. Probably I will take my Kia Sonet there soon & see if there is a difference. Majorly depends on the suspension of the car & type of car. in Baleno, it is anyways always scary above 100kmph.

This more or less matches with my experience.

Have used this expressway many times and have always found the ride to be extremely uncomfortable. If someone were to lose control at one of the umpteen undulations at speed, it would be curtains for the car. Perhaps one of the few places where one sticks to lower speeds than what is allowed, for survival reasons. Hopefully it gets a good resurfacing soon.

It was the Shirdi-Aurangabad stretch of the expressway which I traveled on twice in 2023. It was there that 120 km/h did not feel safe, as the expansion joints got very close to unsettling our car multiple times. I also somehow felt that the surface in general was of poorer quality. Maybe it's to do with the car used (the Skoda Superb, a softly sprung car).

I then traveled all the way to Nagpur on it, and that stretch was a breeze in comparison. However, I still did not find the surface to be as good as concrete highways abroad (the US for example), or Hyderabad's asphalt outer ring road (which I frequent, 120 km/h is a breeze even in our 17 year old car). It was very loud and still lumpy in places.

It's certainly a better surface than the Eastern Peripheral expressway, in line with your observations. However, I still included it in the list since the inconsistency in surface and the awful expansion joints are uncharacteristic of a modern expressway. The same goes for the Delhi-Jaipur expressway.

(On a lighter note, I'd recommend getting an airworthiness certificate for your car before driving on the EPE, since the expansion joints might make you take off. :))

Thanks for clarifying. I have only travelled from Aurangabad to Nagpur and back and my experience was about that stretch. Also good to know a comparison between this and EPE. Would you say the Delhi-Jaipur expressway is similar to samruddhi (have not travelled on it but was looking forward to doing a Delhi run once the road was completed upto Mumbai)

Unfortunately, this doesn't hold true for the Delhi-Jaipur stretch of the Expressway. I drive an Octavia MK4, and I try my best to keep the tyre pressures, suspension and all aspects of the car in best shape - but the dips and undulations in the road are horrific. The car will bounce and it will throw you off from time to time. For my own sanity, I don't dare cross 100kph in that stretch, even when I see cars zip past at way over 120 on these roads.

Unfortunately, I can't give you a firsthand account here. I've only heard from people I know, who mostly say that it's marginally better than the Samruddhi Mahamarg, since its surface is asphalt. This is in line with the views on this thread.

Things might be different on the concrete section of this expressway, though. Would like to see an improvement in surface quality.