Delhi-Mumbai Expressway: Steady progress is being made on the Rs 1-trillion Delhi-Mumbai Expressway project (1,261 km), with work having started on a 497-km stretch, likely to commence soon on another 162 km that has been awarded and a length of 569 km being under the bidding process. The eight-lane expressway, being built under the engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) route, would reduce the distance between the two cities by over 150 km and cut travel time to 13 hours from 24 hours now.
Likely to be ready by 2023-24, the project was necessitated because of heavy congestion on the Delhi-Mumbai National Corridor along NH-48 of the Golden Quadrilateral. The six-lane corridor, a critical component of the country’s road network, sees average traffic of around 80,000 passenger car units (PCUs), a figure that is expected to rise to around 100,000 PCUs soon. What’s worse, widening the corridor further presents logistical challenges.
In its June report, brokerage firm Credit Suisse has said, “This is the first time that the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) is working on a greenfield alignment for such a large project. It has turned out to be cheaper and faster based on lower land acquisition cost and lesser burden of shifting utilities and rehabilitation of people living along the corridor.”
Source: Financial Express
