New Delhi: The government plans to complete three of the 22 expressways and green corridors in the next three years, including the flagship Delhi-Mumbai Expressway being built at a new alignment, Union Minister for Road Transport and Highways Nitin Gadkari said Sunday.
These 22 projects comprising 7,500 km of greenfield expressways and corridors are planned to be completed by FY25 at a cost of Rs 3.10 lakh crore.
“We will complete the flagship Delhi-Mumbai Express Highway in the next three years. The work will be done in 51 packages and it has already started on 18 of those. This will be India’s longest expressway at 1,320 km and will reduce travel time between Delhi and Mumbai from 24 hours to 13 hours,” Gadkari informed.
Of the projects, six are 2,250 km expressways to be built at a cost of Rs 1.45 lakh crore. The remaining 16 are greenfield corridors, including 5,250 km projects to be constructed at a cost of Rs 1.65 lakh crore
Besides Delhi-Mumbai Expressway, the minister said the trans-Rajasthan and trans-Haryana projects will be completed within the next three years.
Gadkari also said that for the Delhi-Mumbai Expressway Greenfield alignment has been selected to avoid habitation and optimise cost of land acquisition.
“We have saved about Rs 16,000 crore on land acquisition front alone as land could be acquired at a cost of Rs 80 lakh per hectare for the project,” informed Gadkari. He added that the expressway will unlock new economic opportunities in hinterland districts of Haryana, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Gujarat.
PTI