Upon completion, the 1,386-km-long expressway will become India's longest expressway. representative image
Union Minister Nitin Gadkari, in a written reply to Narhari Amin, a Bharatiya Janata Party MP, said MoRTH has started construction of the Delhi-Mumbai Expressway, which will include 53 spurs , with a total length of 1,386 kilometers. As of June 2024, a total of 26 packages have been completed
The Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MoRTH) on Wednesday informed the Lok Sabha that nearly half of the work on the Delhi-Mumbai Expressway has been completed by June 2024, with construction on 82 per cent of the stretch completed.
Union Minister Nitin Gadkari, in a written reply to Narhari Amin, a Bharatiya Janata Party MP from Gujarat, said that out of the total length of 1,386 km, a total of 1,136 km has been constructed.
“The actual progress of the project is 82%, and the cumulative length has reached 1,136 kilometers…The revised estimated completion date is October 2025,” he said.
He added that the ministry has started construction of the Delhi-Mumbai Expressway, which includes 53 branches with a total length of 1,386 km. As of June 2024, a total of 26 packages have been completed.
The corridor provides connectivity to major economic centers in Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, Haryana, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat and Maharashtra. It will provide alternate connectivity to Jaipur, Kota, Chittorgarh, Indore, Ujjain, Bhopal, Ahmedabad and Vadodara and will reduce distance and travel time, This saves fuel and logistics costs.
“As per the DPR, the impact includes reduction in distance from Delhi to JNPT by approximately 180 km and reduction in travel time to connected destinations by up to 50 per cent,” Gadkari added.
Currently, Mumbai and Delhi are connected by NH-48, which is longer (1,440 km) and congested.
Upon completion, the 1,386-km-long expressway will become India's longest expressway. Last week, News18 reported that even before its completion, the partially opened Delhi-Mumbai Expressway is the longest in India, surpassing all existing e-expressways in the country. The Delhi-Mumbai Expressway has a total length of 1,386 km, of which 619 km is operational, including the Delhi-Dausa-Sawai Madhopur section, Jhalawar-Rutland-MP/Gujarat border and Vadodara-Bharu He road section.
In June, News18 reported that the Delhi-Mumbai Expressway is expected to get two new sections of nearly 200 kilometers in the next six months.
The expressway is mainly divided into two parts – the Delhi-Vadodara section with a total length of 845 kilometers and the Vadodara-Mumbai section with a total length of 450 kilometers. The section to Vadodara is expected to be completed by March 2025 and the section to Mumbai by October 2025. The 90-km-long DND Sohna and Jewar section is expected to be completed by July 2025.
According to the ministry, the Delhi-Mumbai Greenfield Expressway will create employment opportunities of 5 million man-days during the construction phase.
The highway is currently being developed in an eight-lane configuration, with plans to expand to 12 lanes in the future. The maximum speed a vehicle can travel on the road is 120 km/h.
