Work on the Delhi-Mumbai Expressway will commence in December and this new corridor will be operational in 30 months, said Nitin Gadkari Union Minister for Shipping, Road Transport, Highways and Water Resources. “Contracts worth ₹44,000 crore in the first phase of the project starting from Mumbai to Vadodra have been awarded,” Mr. Gadkari said, at Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust on Friday.
This project is a new alignment and will pass through backward tribal areas of Haryana, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat and Maharashtra. The National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) is implementing the project and will come up with an investment of ₹1 lakh crore. This will be a 12-lane expressway but in the first phase, it will have eight lanes. Through it, containers from JNPT can directly reach Punjab, Haryana and beyond.
New business corridor
The land acquisition cost of the project is low at ₹80 lakh per hectare as compared to ₹7 crore in the existing corridor. With this the government has saved ₹16,000 crore in land acquisition. Land acquisition in the Delhi to Jaipur sector has been completed and tenders have been issued.
Industrial areas will be developed besides this expressway. “A new business corridor will be created. This will benefit JNPT,” Mr. Gadkari said. The new expressway will reduce distance from Delhi to Mumbai by 180 to 200 km and transit time to 12 hours from 40 hours taken currently.
Mr. Gadkari said the AAA-rated NHAI has no problem in mobilizing funds. In October, NHAI will come out with a ₹3,000 crore bond issue exclusively for ‘poor people.’ “I want journalists, teachers, constables, peons, farmers to fund the construction of highways. I will pay 8.5% interest and credit it monthly. I want to construct a road with the poor man’s money as part of our social responsibility,” he said.
He said, with 8.5% interest which is more than the 6% paid by banks, “journalists can retire peacefully.”
