World’s largest expressway in India: 10 key points you should know

Delhi-Mumbai Expressway: Union Minister for Road, Transport and Highways Nitin Gadkari on September 17, 2021, announced that Delhi-Mumbai Express Highway is being constructed as the world’s longest highway in India. The project is expected to be completed by March 2023. Gadkari made these announcements on day two of the two-day aerial survey of the Delhi-Mumbai Express after inspecting the Bharuch section of the expressway on September 17.

The first phase from Delhi-Jaipur (Dausa)-Lalsot and Vadodara-Ankleshwar is expected to be open to traffic by March 2022. Over 15,000 hectares of land have been acquired across states for the construction of the Delhi-Mumbai expressway. The farmers have been paid 1.5 times more than the market price by the ministry for land acquisition.

Union Ministers Nitin Gadkari, Arun Jaitley, and Sushma Swaraj had laid the foundation stone on March 8, 2019. The Delhi-Mumbai Expressway will have India’s first 8-lane bridge that is being built across the Narmada river near Bharuch, Gujarat, tweeted Gadkari.

गुजरात में इस एक्सप्रेस-वे पर 33 वेसाइड अमेनिटीज़ बनाने की योजना बनाई जा रही है ताकि राज्य में आवागमन के लिए विश्व स्तरीय सुविधाएं प्रदान की जा सके और साथ ही राज्य में रोजगार के अवसर पैदा हो सके। #PragatiKaHighway #DelhiMumbaiExpressway pic.twitter.com/oxK0SR5hoL

— Nitin Gadkari (@nitin_gadkari) September 17, 2021

World’s largest expressway: Delhi-Mumbai Expressway - 10 key points you should know

(i) The Delhi-Mumbai Expressway will be the world’s largest highway. It will be 1,380-km long and 8-lane wide. It will go up to Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust (JNPT) but the government is planning to stretch it up to Nariman Point.

(ii) The expressway is expected to be completed by March 2022. The cost of developing the expressway is Rs 98,000 crores. The Delhi-Mumbai expressway route map will run through Gujarat (426 km), Rajasthan (373 km), Madhya Pradesh (244 km), Maharashtra (171 km), Haryana (129 km), and Delhi (9 km).

(iii) The expressway will help to cover the distance between Mumbai and Delhi in 18 to 20 hours by truck and 12 to 13 hours by car. Earlier, it took 48 hours by truck and 24 to 26 hours by car to cover the distance between Mumbai and Delhi.

(iv) The expressway will consist of Wayside Amenities across 93 places that will include facilities such as hotels, ATMs, food courts, retails shops, fuel stations, charging stations for electric vehicles. The expressway will also be the first in India that will have helipads and fully equipped trauma centres at every 100-km for accident victims.

(v) The expressway will have a green cover with 2 million trees as an environment-friendly expressway. The entire stretch will have drip irrigation with a rainwater harvesting system at every 500 metres. The expressway will lead to an annual fuel savings of more than 320 million litres and a reduction of CO2 emissions by 850 million kg.

(vi) The expressway will include two 8-lane tunnels, one 4-km tunnel passing through Mukundra sanctuary and another 4-km tunnel will pass through the Matheran eco-sensitive zone.

(vii) The expressway will connect the urban centres of Delhi through the Delhi-Faridabad-Sohna section to Jewar Airport and Jawaharlal Nehru Port to Mumbai. The expressway will also connect with several other expressways such as Delhi-Noida Direct Flyway (DND) in Delhi, Ahmedabad-Vadodara Expressway in Gujarat, Kundli-Manesar-Palwal Expressway (KMP) in Haryana, and Mumbai-Pune Expressway, and Mumbai-Nagpur Expressway.

(viiI) The expressway will have India’s first iconic 8-lane bridge that is being built across the Narmada river near Bharuch, Gujarat.

(ix) The expressway will have 5 wildlife crossings along a combined 2.5 km stretch. This will be the first expressway that will have wildlife corridors, all of which are important Tiger reserves of India. The section of the expressway passing through the wildlife corridor will have 6-foot tall walls on each side to prevent animal trespassing.

(x) The National Highway Authority of India (NHAI) has awarded construction work in 52 packages to 20 construction companies.

Delhi-Mumbai Expressway: State-wise key points

The Delhi-Mumbai expressway route map will run through Gujarat (426 km), Rajasthan (373 km), Madhya Pradesh (245 km), Maharashtra (171 km), Haryana (129 km), and Delhi (9 km).

Gujarat

The expressway will run through Gujarat for a distance of 426-km with 60 major bridges, 33 wayside amenities, 17 flyovers, 17 interchanges, and 8 road over bridges (RoB). The cost of building the expressway in Gujarat will be Rs 35,100 crores.

Rajasthan

The expressway will pass through Rajasthan for a distance of 374-km. This stretch of the expressway will be built at a cost of Rs 16,600 crores. The 214-km Delhi-Jaipur (Dausa)-Lalsot section will be open to traffic by March 2022. The remaining Lalsot-Kota section will be completed by March 2023.

The expressway in Rajasthan will pass through Alwar, Bharatpur, Bundi, Kota, Dausa, Sawai Madhopur, and Tonk. It will pass through Bangana river, Chambal river, Mez river, and Banas river. An engineering marvel of 1,100-km long elevated stretch will also be built across the Chakan Dam.

Madhya Pradesh

The expressway will pass through Madhya Pradesh for a distance of 245-km. This stretch will be built at a cost of Rs 11,100 crores. The expressway will run for 102.4 km in Mandsaur, 90.1 km in Ratlam, and 52 km in Jhabual. Of the 250-km of the expressway, 106-km has been constructed.

Maharashtra

The expressway will run through Maharashtra for a distance of 171-km. This stretch will be built at a cost of Rs 23,000 crores.

Haryana

The expressway will run through Haryana for a distance of 160-km. This stretch will be built at a cost of Rs 10,400 crores. The expressway will have an elevated road over bridge (RoB) of 3 km across the DFCC corridor. At a height of 18m, the RoB will be one of India’s tallest highway bridges. Usually, an RoB is elevated up to 6 to 9 m.

Delhi

The expressway will run through Delhi for a distance of 9-km. This stretch will be built at a cost of Rs 1,800 crores.