Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated the first phase of the 1380-km, eight-lane Delhi-Mumbai expressway on February 12. The 246-km Delhi-Dausa-Lalsot section will be open to the public, reducing the travel time from the national capital to Jaipur from five hours to about three hours.
The expressway passing through Delhi, Haryana, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Gujarat will reduce travel time between Delhi and Mumbai from over a day to just 12 hours. The expressway is also set to benefit various cities along the way, cutting down travel times between them as well. The Minister of Road Transport and Highways, Nitin Gadkari, in a tweet said that the Sohna-Dausa stretch of the highway “will enable a hassle-free 2-hour journey between Delhi and Jaipur”. The reduction in distance and travel time is set to result in annual fuel savings of more than 320 million litres and reduce carbon-dioxide emissions by 850 million kg, the Ministry estimates. More than two million trees and shrubs are also planned to be planted along the highway.
The expressway is being constructed with an initial budget of Rs 98,000 crore. The work on the expressway started in 2018 and is set to be completed by the end of 2023. Depending on the volume of traffic the expressway sees, there are plans in place to expand it to a 12-lane expressway in the future.
