The upcoming 1380 kilometres eight-lane expressway will reduce travel time between certain cities to 12-12.5 hours from 24 hours. Over the two days to review the project’s progress, the Road Transport and Highways Minister toured Delhi, Rajasthan, Haryana, Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh. The ambitious infra project is being constructed at a cost of Rs 98,000 crore and is scheduled for completion by March 2023. By March 2022, the first phase of the highway from Delhi-Jaipur (Dausa)-Lalsot as well as Vadodara-Ankleshwar is likely to be open. Delhi–Mumbai Expressway will connect DND Flyway in Delhi to Jawaharlal Nehru Port in Maharashtra via Dausa, Kota, Ratlam, Vadodara and Surat. It passes through the states of Delhi (9 km), Haryana (129 km), Rajasthan (373 km), Madhya Pradesh (244 km), Gujarat (426 km) and Maharashtra (171 km). The main length of the expressway is from Sohna to Virar only i.e. 1,198 km. Additionally, it has two spurs: DND–KMP (59 km) and Virar–JNPT (92 km), which increases its length to 1,350 km.
The highway project was kick started in the year 2018 with the project’s foundation stone being laid on 9 March 2019. Once ready, the expressway will feature a spur to Noida International Airport and Jawaharlal Nehru Port to Mumbai through a spur in the financial capital. The project is expected to improve connectivity to economic hubs of India like Jaipur, Ajmer, Kishangarh, Chittorgarh, Kota, Udaipur, Ujjain, Bhopal, Indore, Vadodara, Ahmedabad and Surat. Out of the total of 1,380 kilometres, contracts have been awarded for more than 1,200 kilometres where work is currently under progress. For its construction, over 15,000 hectares of land has been acquired across states. Over 12 lakh tonnes of steel will be consumed in the project’s construction, which is equivalent to constructing 50 Howrah bridges. The expressway which is eight-lane access-controlled, can be expanded to a 12-lane expressway depending on the traffic volumeIt will boast wayside amenities such as resorts, food courts, restaurants, fuel stations, logistics parks, facilities for truckers
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