Delhi-Mumbai Expressway will be different, with smoother ride and long life

NHAI is deploying a new bitumen technology to increase its longevity

On approaching the upcoming Delhi-Mumbai Expressway from Sohna in Haryana, it looks like any other construction site with mud and debris and labourers milling around but the result will be a very different kind of expressway that, owing to new material, is going to last longer.

The quantity and specification of bitumen that is being used will not just give the expressway a butter-smooth finish but also ensure longevity for a road expected to be an important commercial link between the two cities.

It is also the country’s first expressway which will boast the Perpetual Pavement Design--it will not require any strengthening in its entire life cycle, ensuring safety of movement throughout its life.

The design is the brainchild of engineers and technical staff at the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) who wondered how to end the need to strengthen an expressway after 30 years.

“This won’t be necessary now and even the renewal coat will be required only in a decade as against 4-5 years for any other highway. It will result in cost savings at the time of operation and maintenance,” said a senior NHAI official.

Vivek Tiwari, an engineer with Apco Infratech, one of the companies working for the NHAI, said they are using Stone Mastic Asphalt (SMA) technology in which larger quantities of bitumen are used.

“This makes the road smoother for vehicles and more durable. The cost of construction goes up but the longevity makes it worthwhile,” said Tiwari.

Another new technology being tried out is for a bump-free ride. “Joints are the weakest point in any construction and this time we have used laser technology which will provide a smooth road without any jolts,” said the NHAI official.

Apco Infratech is executing two ‘packages’ or sections of the Haryana stretch of the Delhi-Mumbai expressway. Its team on the ground says that half the work is complete.

The 1,250 km long expressway has a total of 46 packages and various contractors have been awarded either a couple or more.

KCC Buildcon is working on two packages on the Haryana and Rajasthan sections. It says 70 per cent of the work is complete and one of the packages may be  over by the end of May.

Technology will come into play even after the construction is over, ensuring the smooth flow of traffic across its eight lanes and the five states it passes through. “We are using a traffic management system which will rely on satellites,” said Rahul Awasthi, an engineer with KCC Buildcon.

Awasthi is supervising the company’s package at Dausa in Rajasthan, where the new system will be installed at major interchanges.

The benefit of the satellite-connected traffic management system is that it prevents bottlenecks by monitoring traffic, dealing promptly with accidents and enforcing adherence to the speed limit sensors on the road.

In deploying new technologies, the NHAI has not forgotten nature. The expressway will have a water harvesting structure every 500 metres on the highway and it plans to plant 5,000 trees per every kilometre – a total of some four crore trees.

The road is a flagship greenfield project under Bharatmala Pariyojana, an umbrella project for the highways sector that focuses on optimising the efficiency of freight and passenger movement. It will reduce the travel time by half.

The project is being executed under 48 sub-projects, out of which 17 are Hybrid Annuity Model projects (the Vadodara-Mumbai segment) and 31 are under the EPC Model (the Delhi-Vadodara segment).

Of these 48 sub-projects, 27 are under construction and 17 have been awarded with work expected to start soon. The rest are under process for awarding.

The completion target is March 2023, with one of the stretches to the Jawaharlal Nehru Port Terminal in Navi Mumbai’s Raigad district scheduled to be completed by September 2023.

The total estimated cost of the greenfield project is about Rs 87,500 crore, including a land acquisition cost of about Rs 20,600 crore.

Expenditure other than land acquisition during the construction period will be about Rs 53,849 crore, to be funded through Rs 48,464 crore debt and equity of about Rs 5,385 crore from NHAI, with a debt-equity ratio marked at 9:1.