594 km
12 February 2023 (Sohna–Dausa) 2 October 2023 (Dausa-Sawai Madhopur) (Bhanpura Interchange-Thandla Interchange)[1] February 2024 (Vadodara-Bharuch)[2][3][4]–present
The Delhi–Mumbai Expressway is a 1,350 km long, 8-lane wide (expandable to 12-lane) under-construction (partially operational) access-controlled expressway connecting India's national capital New Delhi to its financial capital Mumbai.[5][6][7][8] The foundation stone for the project was laid by union minister of Road Transport & Highways Nitin Gadkari in the presence of Sushma Swaraj and Arun Jaitley on 8 March 2019 and it was inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.[9] The total project value including the land acquisition cost is around ₹1,00,000 crores (~US$13.1 billion).[10][11][12] It is expected to be completed by October 2025.[13]
Initially, the expressway is 8-lane wide with the greenfield-alignment route in backward areas, which will reduce the current 24 hours travel time to 12 hours.[15][16] Land for an additional four lanes is reserved in the middle of the road for future expansion, along with the space for utilities, plantation and public transport on both sides. This expressway, along with Western Dedicated Freight Corridor (Western DFC) is a vital backbone of the Delhi-Mumbai Industrial Corridor.[17]
Trumpet interchange with KMP Expressway at Khalilpur village in Nuh district. Traffic coming from Maharani Bagh in Delhi by 59 km long DND–Faridabad–KMP section will also merge here.[22]
The National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) has formed a special-purpose vehicle (SPV) to finance the construction and operation of the Delhi–Mumbai Expressway. The SPV has been registered on 29 August 2020 by the name of DME Development Limited (DMEDL) and it will be wholly owned by the NHAI.[27] By floating SPV specific to a corridor, NHAI is aiming at diversifying its resource base to develop a sustainable and self-liquidating approach to raise finances. The toll on the projects housed in SPV shall be collected by NHAI and SPV shall get the annuity payments without any construction and tolling risks. On 1 March 2021, DME Development Limited received the highest 'AAA' credit ratings from CRISIL, Care Ratings and India Ratings.[28]
Construction
Construction phases
The entire 1,350 km long Delhi–Mumbai Expressway has been divided into 4 sections with a total of 52 construction packages/tenders, where the length of each package is between 8 km to 46 km.[29][14]
The NHAI has awarded the construction work in 52 packages to around 20 construction companies. Around 15,000 hectares of land has been acquired for this project. The list of contractors is as follows:
Note: As of 11 November 2021, Tender for 65 km length is pending i.e. for 4 packages in Maharashtra (Virar–JNPT section).
Project financing
The project is being executed in 52 packages, out of which 31 are under Engineering, Procurement and Construction model or EPC projects (Sohna–Vadodara segment) while the remaining 21 are Hybrid Annuity Model or HAM projects. The HAM Model is a hybrid or mixture of EPC Model and BOT Model in which the Government of India will pay 40% of the project cost in trenches linked to milestones, while the balance 60% cost will be arranged by the contractors.
World record for construction
In Gujarat, contractor Patel Infrastructure created a world record by laying Pavement quality concrete (PQC) in 2.58 km length in 4-lane width (4x2.58 =10.32 lane km) within 24 hours. The work of laying PQC started on 1 February 2021 at 8 am and ended the next day at 8 am. An 18.75 metre wide German-made Wirtgen concrete paving machine was used in this stretch.[39]
Special features
The various special features of the Delhi–Mumbai Expressway are as follows.
Wayside Amenities
The expressway will have Wayside Amenities at 93 places having facilities like ATM, hotels, retail shops, food courts, charging stations for electric vehicles and fuel stations. It will also be the first expressway in India to have helipads and fully equipped trauma centers at every 100 km for accident victims.
Electric highway
On 25 March 2021, Union Minister Nitin Gadkari said in Lok Sabha that there is a plan to develop a stretch of this expressway as an e-highway (electric highway) where trucks and buses can run at a speed of 120 km/hour which will bring down the logistics cost by 70% as heavy vehicles will run on electricity instead of diesel. National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) has started the construction of this project, and is expected to be completed by March 2022.[40][41] It will also have 4 dedicated lanes for electric vehicles in the entire expressway, out of 8 lanes.[42]
Environment friendly
It is being developed as an environment-friendly expressway with a tree cover of 20 lakh trees, watered with drip irrigation along the entire stretch with a rainwater harvesting system at every 500 metres. Expressway will be lit using a mix of power supply from state grids and Solar energy.[43]
Wildlife crossings
A combined length of 2.5 km of this 8-lane wide expressway will have run under 5 natural-looking wildlife crossings on the stretches identified as the known wildlife corridors between tiger reserves. One of these crossings will be a tunnel in Mukundara Hills National Park, which will be the country's first 8-lane wide tunnel. This will be the first expressway in India to have wildlife crossings. The crossing over the expressway will have 8 meters tall noise barrier walls on either side, and the uncovered stretch of expressway passing through the wildlife corridor will have 6-foot tall walls on both sides of the expressway to prevent animals and pedestrians from entering to minimize the impact of traffic zipping past at speeds up to 120 km/hour. This expressway runs through Aravalli Wildlife corridors especially affecting corridors in four Tiger Reserves of Rajasthan, namely Sariska Tiger Reserve, Mukundara Hills National Park, Ranthambore National Park and Ramgarh Vishdhari Wildlife Sanctuary, all of which are important Tiger reserves of India.[44][45][43] There is overcrowding at Ranthambore, and tigers have migrated to other sanctuaries and reserves via the Aravalli wildlife corridor, for example, at least 3 tigers have migrated out of Ranthambore to Ramgarh since 2013.[46]
Wildlife experts have expressed concerns as there are not sufficient wildlife crossings on this very wide 8-lane expressway, especially between Sariska and Ranthambore reserves as well as Sariska reserve and leopard habitat forests of Delhi-Gurugram-Faridabad-Nuh in Delhi NCR. This area is also a part of the leopard corridor of NCR. Additional wildlife crossings are needed at several locations, such as on the alignment near Faridabad (alignment near Nimot-Kot-Dhouj forested hills), hills east of Bhadas (hill from Devla Nagli to Rithat to Khanpur Ghati), hills near Firozpur Jhirka (crossings near Kheri Kalan, Regarh, Bhakro Ji, Bas Burja), Naugaon, Dohli, near Alwar and Sariska (Ghata-Chirawanda-Kalakha), Nangal Todiyal, Bandikui, Dausa, Chhateda, etc.
The expressway will have multiple side spurs in the future, which will help commuters to connect with other major cities which are not directly connected on the main route.
Faridabad–Jewar–Khurja Expressway: In July 2022, the NHAI awarded the construction work of a 31-km long addition side spur connecting Noida International Airport in Jewar with Sector-65, Faridabad bypass, Haryana on this expressway.[49]
Bandikui–Jaipur Expressway: NHAI awarded construction work of Bandikui–Jaipur spur package in March 2022, it is now under construction as on 26 June 2024.
Aug 2018: Union Minister Nitin Gadkari said that the construction work of Delhi–Mumbai Expressway will start by December 2018.[51]
Dec 2018: Construction work started on the Narmada River by Ashoka Buildcon on 10 December. It is part of Package-4 of the Vadodara–Virar section.[52]
Jan 2019: Land acquisition work is at last stage in Haryana. Construction work starts for Package-1 and 2 of the Vadodara–Virar section, while work on the Sohna–Vadodara section will start soon.[53]
Mar 2019:Foundation stone laid by Union Minister Nitin Gadkari for the DND–KMP section on 1 March 2019 and the Sohna–Vadodara & Virar–JNPT sections on 8 March 2019.[54] Construction work awarded for 148 km, 400 km of work to be awarded in a month and the rest 800 km of work to be awarded in the next 6 months. The ₹90,000 crores expressway will take about 3 years to complete.[55]
Sep 2019: Construction work on the Sohna–Vadodara section starts on 5 September for Package-3 and on 13 September for Package-1 & 2.[43] All 3 packages are in Haryana (Sohna to Kolgaon).[23]
Jun 2020: 497 km under construction, 162 km of work awarded, 569 km under the bidding process. Detailed Project Report (DPR) to be prepared for 92 km long Virar–JNPT (Virar–Mumbai) section.[58]
Aug 2020: Contracts awarded for all 3 packages of 59 km long DND–Faridabad–KMP section to DRA Infracon. It will pass through DND Flyway, Faridabad, Ballabhgarh and KMP Expressway.[59]
Oct 2020:Soil testing work started in Faridabad on DND–Faridabad–KMP section.[60] Contracts awarded in Maharashtra for Packages 11, 12 & 13 of Vadodara–Virar section on 15 October 2020.
Apr 2021: 710 km under-construction. Work awarded by NHAI for 41 out of 52 construction packages (1,110 km out of 1,350 km).[43]
July 2021: 350 km has been constructed, 825 km is under-construction and Tenders for the remaining 7 out of 52 packages to be awarded before March 2022: Nitin Gadkari said in Rajya Sabha.[61]
Aug 2021: A link road will be constructed which will connect Sector-65, Faridabad in Haryana on this expressway to the upcoming Noida International Airport in Jewar, Uttar Pradesh.[62][63]
Sep 2021: The construction work of the steel bridge over Narmada river near Bharuch in Gujarat has been completed in a record time of 32 months: Union Minister Nitin Gadkari.[64]
Oct 2021: NHAI begins design work of the 30 km long side spur connecting Noida International Airport in Jewar, Uttar Pradesh with Ballabhgarh (Faridabad), Haryana on this expressway.[49]
Feb 2022: During the Budget Session, President Ramnath Kovind said that the expressway will be completed soon.
Mar 2022:Segment Launcher started erection of concrete structures in Delhi on 21 March. It is a part of DND–Faridabad–KMP section (Package-1) in which 7 km out of 9 km will be elevated.[21]
Mar 2022: GR Infraprojects Ltd emerges as the lowest bidder to construct and operate the 67 km long Bandikui–Jaipur spur section.[65]
July 2022: Tender for Faridabad bypass to Jewar Airport (Spur package) has been awarded by the NHAI to Apco Infratech Pvt. Ltd. on 29 July.[66][67]
Dec 2022: 1063 km under-construction out of 1386 km; 7 packages (202 km) out of 53 (1386 km) completed as of 30 December 2022.[68]
Feb 2023:Prime MinisterNarendra Modi inaugurated the 246-km long Sohna–Dausa–Lalsot stretch of the expressway on 12 February 2023. The entire Expressway is expected to be opened by January 2024.[2][3][4][69]
September 2023: 244 km Madhya Pradesh section was opened on 20 September 2023.[70]
February 2024: The Vadodara to Bharuch section of Delhi-Mumbai expressway was inaugurated on 22 February 2024.[71]
July 2024: Per National Authority of India (NHAI), more than 80% of the work has been completed. This includes 96% completion of Delhi to Vadodara sector stretching 845 Kms. All eight phases are set to be operational by end of 2024.[72]
Aug 2024: Nitin Gadkari the Minister of Road Transport and Highways while replying to a question in Rajya Sabha confirmed that entire stretch of Expressway is expected to be completed by October 2025 with possibility of Sohna-Vadodara to be fully operational by March 2025.[73][13]
