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New highway halves driving time to India's Taj Mahal |
A caretaker of the Taj Mahal in Agra looks at the monument in 2004. A new highway connecting India's Taj Mahal tourism town of Agra with the capital New Delhi that will slash driving time by more than half opened. (Photo Credit: Prakash Singh/AFP/File)
Agence France Presse, Aug 09, 2012
A new highway connecting India's Taj Mahal tourism town of Agra with the capital New Delhi that will slash driving time by more than half opened on Thursday.
The 165-kilometre (100-mile) Yamuna Expressway promises a two-hour drive through the crowded towns of Uttar Pradesh state to Agra, where the Taj Mahal draws almost three million domestic and foreign tourists a year.
At present, the trip to the Taj Mahal, known as the "Monument of Love", takes up to five hours because of chaotic traffic.
The Press Trust of India news agency said the privately-built road cost 120 billion rupees ($2.17 billion). The state plans to build townships alongside the highway.
The construction of the expressway, India's longest six-lane highway, saw delays mainly because of protests by farmers over acquisition of their land.
India, which is ramping up its road infrastructure to accelerate economic growth in Asia's third largest economy, boasts the second largest road network in the world after the United States at 3.4 million kilometres.
New Delhi in 2010 promised to add 28,000 kilometres of road to the existing 70,500 kilometre network of highways by 2014 besides thousands of kilometres of district and village roads.