Union Minister for Road Transport and Highways Nitin Gadkari on Monday said the government would start building a new expressway connecting Gurgaon and Mumbai. The project will cost approximately Rs 1 trillion.
This comes as a huge relief to those who frequently travel between Delhi and Mumbai as this expressway would cut down the travel time significantly – from an arduous 24-hour journey by road to only 12 hours.
“A sum of Rs 1 trillion will be spent on this expressway … Nitin Gadkari outlined major initiatives of his ministry for de-congestion of Delhi NCR. A total of 10 projects are underway costing Rs 356 billion,” Ministry of Road Transport and Highway said in a statement.
Work on the project will be completed in three years starting from this December, sources told The Times of India.
This Delhi-Mumbai expressway project will reduce the distance from 1,450 km by road through NH8 to approximately 1,250 km, which in turn will also bring down the travel time significantly — to about 12 hours from the current 24-hour travel time, TOI reported.
According to the reports, the new expressway project will stretch across states covering two of the country’s most backward districts, Mewat in Haryana and Dahod in Gujarat. The whole route will be: Delhi-Gurgaon-Mewat-Kota-Ratlam-Godhra-Vadora-Surat-Dahisar-Mumbai.
“This entire expressway will bring development to the undeveloped regions and hinterland in Rajasthan, Haryana and Madhya Pradesh to spur growth and some backward areas will also shine like Gurugram. Industrial and commercial development will generate jobs. We are now looking at building highways on new alignment rather than just expanding the existing stretches to decentralise development,” TOI quoted Gadkari as having said.
The Delhi-Mumbai expressway will begin from Rajiv Chowk in Gurgaon. PTI reported that the transport and highways minister also talked about plans to build Chambal expressway that would be connected to the Delhi-Mumbai expressway. The Chambal expressway will benefit states like Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan.
Gadkari also said that to speed up the work, the construction of the Delhi-Mumbai expressway will start at 40 different locations simultaneously.
The reports suggest that the land acquisition expense for the expressway would be less than its earlier projects and even the existing ones. The reason behind this is that expressway will pass through backward districts and regions. The land acquisition expenses of the Delhi-Mumbai expressway will be approximately around Rs 50 billion to Rs 60 billion.
Moreover, according to PTI reports, Gadkari informed that work on a signal-free corridor from Dhaula Kuan to Airport has been awarded at a cost of Rs 2.6 billion.
He told PTI that eight-lane fully access-controlled Dwarka Expressway is being developed in four packages. While three packages have already been awarded, the work on the expressway is likely to start in a month’s time. Total investment in the project is Rs 95 billion.
Similarly, to ease traffic in East Delhi, Delhi-Meerut Expressway was envisaged, and its Delhi-Dasna portion will be inaugurated by the Prime Minister on April 29 by a roadshow.