Prime Minister Narendra Modi will inaugurate the 246-kilometer stretch of the ambitious Delhi-Mumbai Expressway today, on February 12, 2023. The Delhi-Dausa-Lalsot section of the Delhi-Mumbai Expressway is expected to cut the travel time from the capital to Jaipur from five hours to about three and a half. The Delhi-Mumbai Expressway, once completed, will be the India’s longest with the length of 1,386 km. It will reduce the travel distance between Delhi and Mumbai from 1,424 km to 1,242 km, while the travel time is expected to cut by 50 per cent, from the current 24 hours to 12 hours.

This first portion of the Delhi-Mumbai Expressway, the Delhi-Dausa section, has been built at a cost of more than Rs 12,150 crore and will significantly promote the economic growth of the entire region, according to the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO). The PMO said Modi’s emphasis on the building of excellent road infrastructure as an engine of growth, development and connectivity in “New India” is being realised by the construction of a number of ongoing world class expressways across the country.

Delhi-Mumbai Expressway route

The expressway will pass through six states of Delhi, Haryana, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat and Maharashtra and connect major cities like Kota, Indore, Jaipur, Bhopal, Vadodara and Surat. It will also serve 93 PM Gati Shakti Economic Nodes, 13 ports, eight major airports and eight multi-modal logistics parks (MMLPs) along with spurs to new upcoming greenfield airports such as Jewar Airport, Navi Mumbai Airport and JNPT port.

This expressway will cost 98,000 crores to build and will improve connectivity between the National Capital of Delhi and the Financial Capital of Mumbai. The expressway will connect urban centers in Delhi via the Delhi-Faridabad-Sohna section of the corridor, as well as a spur to Jewar Airport and Jawaharlal Nehru Port, to Mumbai via a spur in Mumbai.

Delhi-Mumbai Expressway features

In addition, the road transport ministry is planning to build an electric highway between Delhi and Mumbai at a cost of 2.5 lakh crore. Trolleybuses and trolley trucks will be able to operate on these highways, according to the ministry. Trolley buses are electric buses that are powered by overhead wires, whereas an electric highway is a road that provides power to vehicles travelling on it, including via overhead power lines.