Delhi-Mumbai Expressway, freight corridor to be pillars of progress: PM

Modi brings infra in focus ahead of Rajasthan polls, opens first phase of India's longest expressway

The Delhi-Mumbai Expressway and the Western Dedicated Freight Corridor (WDFC) will be two robust pillars of the country’s economic prosperity, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on Sunday, while inaugurating the first phase of the Delhi-Mumbai expressway,

“In the coming time, these two projects will transform Rajasthan and the whole region, along with strengthening the Delhi-Mumbai Industrial Corridor (DMIC),” the PM said in Rajasthan, which is headed for polls later this year.

The Delhi Mumbai Expressway is one of the Centre’s most expensive and ambitious infrastructure projects. The 246-km Delhi-Dausa-Lalsot stretch of the expressway, which was inuagrated today, is expected to cut travel time between Delhi and Jaipur to 3.5 hours.

Modi noted that the expressway’s holistic planning will result in savings of crores of rupees and time, referring to the provision of dedicated corridors along the expressway for installation of optical fibre cables for 5G, gas pipelines, warehouses, and solar plants.

“The Expressway will have a catalytic impact in the developmental trajectory of all adjoining regions, thus contributing in a major way in the economic transformation of the country,” the prime minister’s office said in a statement.

Union highway minister Nitin Gadkari, addressing the same event, said while the current speed limit on expressways is 120 kilometres per hour (kmph), there is potential in access-controlled greenfield expressways for much higher speeds. He added that the Centre is currently in deliberations on increasing the maximum speed thresholds on these routes.

Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot, in his address, pointed to the PM and highways minister that the Centre had given in-principle approval to declare 50 roads in the state as national highways, however, no gazette notification has been issued for the same. He sought expedition in the process so that development work on these roads could be taken up on priority basis.

The Rs one-trillion-expressway Delhi-Mumbai Expressway is the centrepiece of the government’s Bharatmala project, which envisages an overhaul in national highway infrastructure. The initial target year for the completion of Bharatmala was 2022, but government and industry estimates suggest that the project will only see completion around FY27.

The Delhi-Mumbai expressway is expected to be completed in 2024, Gadkari said.

Meanwhile, the WDFC is already partly operational, but the vital last stretch connecting the corridor with Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust (JNPT) in Maharashtra has seen unexpected delays amid issues of land acquisition and poor pace of construction.