Delhi-Mumbai Expressway Project: On Thursday, Road Transport and Highway Minister Nitin Gadkari announced that the Modi government is trying to build a separate ‘e-highway’ on the 1,300 km long Delhi-Mumbai Expressway where vehicles like buses and trucks can ply at 120 kmph speed. While replying to a query in the Parliament during Question Hour, the Union Minister said the move is expected to bring cost of logistics down by 70%. Gadkari was quoted in a PTI report saying that on the 1,300 km highway between Delhi and Mumbai, his ministry is trying to build ‘e-highway’ adding that, however, no final decision has been taken on this.
The Road Transport and Highway Minister further said that the company- Siemens has used this technology and constructed a similar road in Germany. While replying to another query, Gadkari said that an amount of Rs 60,000 crore has been spent on constructing roads such as the Dwarka Expressway, the eastern as well as the western express bypass which will reduce the level of air pollution in the national capital.
It is being said that the construction work of the upcoming Delhi-Mumbai highway project will be completed in 51 packages. Once work on this project is completed, the length of the Delhi-Mumbai highway will be 1,320 kilometres in total. With this, this highway is set to become one of the country’s longest expressways. Earlier it was also reported that with the opening of the Delhi-Mumbai Expressway, the travel time between the national capital and financial capital will reduce to 12 to 13 hours from 24 hours.
Passing through the states of Rajasthan, Haryana, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, and Maharashtra, the Delhi-Mumbai Expressway project would also offer easier connectivity to the cities of Kota, Jaipur, Chittorgarh, Ujjain, Indore, Ahmedabad, Bhopal and Vadodara. Besides, once this highway is opened, the reduction in travel time and distance is also expected to have significant economic benefits.
