The Indian government has made an interesting announcement for all the travel enthusiasts who love to be on the road. The government has introduced the new Delhi-Mumbai Expressway, which will be constructed to connect the two major metropolitan cities of India with the aim to reduce the travel time to just 12 hours. 

The project has been expected to be completed by the year 2023. This project is going to be an eight-lane expressway. It will be access-controlled hence will help to reduce the traffic and the travel time between the two cities by road. The project will help to cut the travel distance on this route by 280 km.

It is a Greenfield project that will be connecting both the two cities via Jaipur (Rajasthan) and Vadodara (Gujarat). Nitin Gadkari, Minister for Road Transport and Highways has reported that this route will be from Delhi to Gurugram (Haryana) to Mewat (Haryana) to Kota (Rajasthan) to Ratlam (Madhya Pradesh) to Godhra (Gujarat) to Vadodara (Gujarat) to Surat (Gujarat) to Dahisar to Mumbai (Maharashtra).

This will be a 1320 km long venture that will siphon off a distance of 150 km between the two cities. The expressway will be constructed under the Modi government’s planned 42,000 km long economic corridors project that has been named "Bharatmala Pariyojana." The project will require a whopping 90,000 crores that will be used for the construction of this expressway. Another 9,000 crores will be allocated for a new 29 km Dwarka expressway which will be bypassing the city of Gurgaon.

The work for the expressway is going to be divided into five phases. It is expected that the expressway will be completed within a period of 30 to 36 months. The expressway project has been planned to take a lot of things into consideration especially the convenience of the travelers. 

The Project will help the travelers to directly reach the Delhi airport if you need to take a flight by using the 5 km long tunnel of the expressway that will lead to the terminal 3 of the Indira Gandhi International Airport. 

According to the Minister, "This project is going to cost about 1 lakh crore. The expressway will also be connected to the Mumbai Nagpur Samruddhi express highway. The acquisition of the land for the project is already underway. The contract has been awarded to begin the first phase of the Project from Mumbai (Maharashtra) to Vadodara (Gujarat). Work will be completed within the next 2 and a half years." 32 contracts out of the 60 have been awarded as of now.

He further added, that just by changing the alignment of the route, the ministry for Road Transport and Highways has successfully reduced the cost of the project. "This route will pass through the various tribal routes of India including Alwar in Rajasthan, Jhabua in Madhya Pradesh and many other tribal areas. Because the route will pass through the backward areas, hence the rates of the land acquisition have been brought down from a whopping 7 crore per hectare to just Rs 80 lakh per hectare. This will help us in saving up to Rs 16,000 crore through this."

There will be cross-road underpasses at all the major points of the project and an efficient transportation system will be put in place to help in ease of travel. The central government has made an allocation of Rs 25,200 crore as compensation for the farmers for the lands that will be acquired under this project.

Other than this, the Minister also talked about the various other water connectivity projects for the state. He said in a statement that the water connectivity project from Thane to Vasai-Virar will be started in the first phase of the Sagarmala project. A total amount of 1200 crore has been put in for it.

He also exclaimed that the ministry has been planning to raise Rs 10 lakh crore through the "Bharat mala" bonds for the purpose of many infrastructure projects. These bonds are likely going to be launched in the month of October and it will be expected to give returns of up to 8.5 percent on the bonds. As an effort to decongest the commercial vehicle's traffic on the Mumbai and Thane route, the Ministry has plans for mooting a straight aligned route from Surat in Gujarat to Nashik (Maharashtra) to Pune (Maharashtra).

The foundation stones have been laid for all the project and the expectations for the success of this project are high. The project will help to boost the economy of many backward areas of India which lie on the route of this expressway. Many industries including the manufacturing and the tourism industry will be witnessing growth in such areas.

Also read:- Government of India to fund the travels of tourists visiting 15 places in a year