The central government of India has announced yet another ambitious project which will connect the capital city Delhi to the financial capital Mumbai. The super expressway as planned will cut the travel time between the two cities by half! On completion, the drive between Delhi and Mumbai will be just 12 hours! Sounds amazing, right? The project will pass through less developed regions and the cost of the project is yet to be decided.

The Road Transport and Highways Minister Nitin Gadkari said, “Instead of expanding lanes of existing highways, we are focusing on creating greenfield ones as the cost of land acquisition is lesser for a greenfield project that passes through comparatively lesser developed areas. The new alignment is being identified after which the cost will be decided.” He also mentioned the project will be developed in four stages covering a distance of 1200 km stretch.

The government has started the first phase of the road construction. The initial layout suggests it will connect Gurugram Ring Road to Jaipur. This will take another 15 months to complete. It will pass through Jaipur and Vadodara and the first and fourth stages are already being worked upon. The work for connecting Mumbai to Vadodara has also started.

Currently, it takes about 20 plus hours by road and the fastest train Rajdhani Express also takes about 16 hours. This Greenfield project looks really promising in reducing the travel time. But the vehicles need to be at an estimate of 120kmph to achieve the time. The new expressway is a part of the centre’s Bharatmala Pariyojana Programme that looks after the development of the expressways. The total estimated cost is about Rs. 16,000 crore and will reduce the distance by 40 kilometers. A consistent speed will also have to be maintained so the highway will be access-controlled. Sound incredible and now all eyes are on the completion of this ambitious project.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Apr 06, 2018 04:57 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).