PM Modi launches Delhi-Mumbai Expressway | Fusion - WeRIndia

Yesterday Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched the first stretch of the Delhi-Mumbai Expressway. It reduces the travel time to Jaipur from Delhi to 3.5 hours. Currently, the journey takes five hours to Jaipur.

The Delhi-Mumbai Expressway has a length of 1,386 km. It will be India’s longest expressway.

This eight-lane expressway will reduce travel time to various cities from the national capital.

For instance, it will reduce the travel distance between Delhi and Mumbai by 12 per cent. That is, it will reduce the travel distance from 1,424 km to 1,242 km.

It will reduce the travel time as well by 50 per cent. At present, the travel time between the two cities is 24 hours, but the expressway will cut it to 12 hours.

Though it is proposed to build an eight-lane expressway, it can be expanded to 12 lanes if required.

The construction of the expressway is expected to be finished by 2024, and it will become operational by that time.

PM Modi launched the first stretch of the 246 km Delhi – Dausa – Lalsot section of the expressway. While the proposed cost of the expressway is ₹98,000 crores, the cost for the development of the first stretch was ₹12,150 crores.

The expressway passes through states like Haryana, Maharashtra, Gujarat, Rajasthan, and Madhya Pradesh. It can connect many major cities like Kota, Jaipur, Surat, Vadodara, Bhopal etc., with the national capital.

The next stretch is the Vadodara-Ankleshwar stretch, which will be completed by April 2023.

As of now, there is no toll fee to travel on this expressway. However, NHAI will fix the toll fee for cars once it becomes fully operational.

The expressway has many unique features. It is the first expressway in Asia to have animal overpasses for their unrestricted movement. There are three overpasses and five underpasses with a length of 2.5km for wildlife movement.

It has an advanced automated traffic management system. In addition, it has a provision for rainwater harvesting in 500-meter intervals with more than 2000 water recharge points.

Image Credit: Wpcpey, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Image Reference: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:National_Highway_No._1_Near_Tainan_Rende_District_2015.jpg