Team-BHP - Delhi-Mumbai expressway to reduce travel time by 12 hours

Bharatmala project: New Delhi-Mumbai expressway to reduce travel time to 12 hours.

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A new expressway would soon reduce travel time between the national capital and Mumbai to just 12 hours. Prime Minister Narendra Modi led government is reportedly planning a Greenfield expressway that would cut down the travel time between the two cities by half. At present, travelling from New Delhi to Mumbai takes around 24 hours. The expressway project would be completed in four phases.

In its first phase, it would connect Delhi to Jaipur and Mumbai to Vadodara. Work on the Delhi-Jaipur stretch has already started and is expected to be completed in 1.5 years.

The cost incurred in the first phase would be Rs 16,000 crore. The government has also begun awarding contracts for the Vadodara-Mumbai stretch where the construction work would cost Rs 44,000 crore.

News Source: http://www.dnaindia.com/business/rep...-hours-2601951

Reducing travel time by 12 hours will only be possible if it's an access-controlled elevated expressway like the Eastern freeway in Mumbai, with a ban on two/three wheelers and trucks. Else it'll be ~100,000 crores spent on a highway with tractors coming down the wrong way, cows and dogs blocking the road, brownian motion of bikes, and slow moving trucks on the inside lane. Not to mention the hour-long waits at two dozen toll booths.

The intent is good, yet looking at the progress made between Delhi Jaipur upgrade, this is not going to be easy and assuming 24 months is absolutely redundant / useless timeline.

Few examples:
1. Mumbai-Pune Expressway construction of 94 km access control expressway took 5 years (1997 to 2002)
2. Phase I of NE1 (Ahmedabad - Nadiad) construction of 43 km access control expressway took 3 years (2000 to 2003)
3. Phase II of NE1 (Nadiad - Vadodara) construction of 49 km access control expressway took 4 years (2000 to 2004)

The news item talks about developing a part of road network through Kota etc. would require land acquisition and allied activities. Cooperation from state governments is equally important and more so, we have to witness state elections as well as generation elections in next couple of months, with model code of conduct in place which will not allow any government to take large financial decisions except BAU tasks.

If the plan is before 2030 - yes it can be believed and achieved.

No I don't think the distance would be 1400 km in the new scenario. It is expected to reduce by about 200 km as part of the highway would be new land parcel development, thereby reducing the distance.

More so such calculations are done from the point of entry of access control / toll road until its end; typically one can assume the entry point from Delhi would be considered after Manesar toll and the exit for Mumbai would be assumed at Mandavi or Rajavali thereby truncating another 50 km each from either side.

Thus about 1100 km in 12 hours i.e. 90 kmph if you cover is non-stop.

Cheers

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Originally Posted by one-77 (Post 4383623)

Reducing travel time by 12 hours will only be possible if it's an access-controlled elevated expressway like the Eastern expressway in Mumbai, with a ban on two/three wheelers and trucks. ....Else it'll be ~100,000 crores spent on a highway with...brownian motion of bikes, and slow moving trucks on the inside lane.

Dear All, this perspective is not aimed at @one-77 alone or specifically but is a response to an attitude I observe across several threads and posts in our T-BHP forum. And that is this - that roads are meant primarily for cars and hence the upper classes like, us, the members of T-BHP; that roads are meant for the joy of our driving. That may be true in say Germany or France but we are not yet at that stage of economic development. A highway such as this is first and foremost an asset to act as a development multiplier for the regions it touches second it is a public use facility to help all goods and passengers travel faster, third to connect smaller towns with Mumbai and Delhi and give traders & manufacturers there access to these two giant markets and so on. Giving driving pleasure and sole access to car wallahs is rightfully not on the list. I can understand it being access controlled to prevent animal drawn and tractors coming in (for reasons of safety) provided a parallel service road for them is also built/exists. All motorized transport needs access to such a national common-use facility. Trucks which carry ~75% of the nations commerce have more right to these expressways than our cars.

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Originally Posted by V.Narayan (Post 4383662)

A highway such as this is first and foremost an ...All motorized transport needs access to such a national common-use facility. Trucks which carry ~75% of the nations commerce have more right to these expressways than our cars.

Absolutely agree with you on the fact that trucks have more right to these expressways than cars. Road transport has more share of business than railway for freight movement in India. But can we expect those trucks to be not overloaded atleast ? Not only they end up being slow on highways, the overloading might not be good for the surface itself. It would have a positive impact on safety as well. Safety should not be taken for granted once we have better infrastructure in place. At the same time, with dedicated freight corridor coming up, the share of railways for freight transport should go up, and hopefully we will have less trucks on road.

Secondly, while I am not against two wheelers and three wheelers, but they do create chaos on highways. A drive on Vadodara-Ahmadabad expressway is relaxing despite heavy traffic sometimes. Rather I think better connectivity via public transport should help here. Also, if they are using highway, then please include them in tolls too.

Allowing two wheeler and three wheelers will make the new highways as good as the current one over a scant period of time. Guajrat's roads are relatively quite good yet I struggle to have an average speed of more than 60 kmph thanks to massive number of two wheeler and overloaded three wheelers struggling with load. A parallel service road, if built, can safely allow us to have limited access expressway wherever possible. This is not possible on existing Vadodara-Mumbai stretch.

Let us look at this development more objectively. While there is a claim of reduction of 12 hours in travel time, it may not be true for all kids of vehicles. However, if it reduces travel time by even 5-6 hours, it is a big deal. Leave aside the fast moving vehicles like cars since that would constitute only a small population of vehicles moving between the two metros. It would immensely benefit the heavy vehicles segment. A 5 hour reduction in travel time for a truck goes a long way in the reduction of costs (indirect). We could also see a lot of bus traffic between the two metros given that it is going to be faster than train travel.

I remember when the expressway between Mumbai and Kolkatta was made operational, it reduced the travel time between these two cities by half. While a goods truck used to take 25 days, it reduced to 15 days and that is a significant cost reduction. I see this as a very positive move.

Courtesy our ambitious Minister of Highways, Nitin Gadkari, there will be a new Expressway connecting Gurgaon with Mumbai in three years.

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The government will build a new expressway connecting Gurugram with Mumbai passing through the country’s two most backward districts —Mewat in Haryana and Dahod in Gujarat —in the next three years, highways minister Nitin Gadkari said on Monday. The project would cost about Rs 60,000 crore, sources said.

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The expressway will reduce the existing distance of 1,450 km by road to about 1,250 km and will bring down the travel time to about 12 hours.

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Delhi-Mumbai highway carries about 15% of the country’s total cargo traffic and this is likely to grow. So, the need for a greenfield expressway was felt,” said a ministry official.

https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/...w/63791549.cms

This is, no doubt, foresighted considering the amount of traffic, both freight and regular, on the current highway. It remains to be seen how effective it will be, in allowing it to be a true expressway. Also, timeline of three years seems very aggressive. We should be prepared for anywhere between 5-10 years?

Work on Delhi-Mumbai expressway to begin from December.

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The work on the proposed Rs 1-trillion expressway connecting Delhi with Mumbai will begin from December and will be completed within three years, Union road transport and highways minister Nitin Gadkari said today.

The new alignment will see the expressway beginning from Gurugram on the Delhi outskirts and running parallel to the existing highway up to Jaipur, from where it will turn eastwards to Alwar, the tribal district of Jhabua and Ratlam in western MP and then move westwards to Baroda, the minister said.

"The expressway will stretch across the states covering two of the nation's most backward districts, Mewat in Haryana and Dahod in Gujarat. The whole route will be: Delhi-Gurugram-Mewat-Kota-Ratlam-Godhra-Vadodara-Surat-Dahisar-Mumbai"

News Source : https://economictimes.indiatimes.com...w/65533513.cms

The 2020 budget announced on 01st February has boosted the Delhi Mumbai expressway.
The expressway will be completed in 2023 and will be the countries longest expressway.

The major takeaway from this highway project is that the government has managed to save an amount of around Rs 16,000 crore on land acquisition front alone. Other than Delhi and Mumbai residents, the project will benefit many other people across India. It is being that that large areas of Gujarat, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, and Haryana will be also be benefited due to the Delhi Mumbai expressway.

Source: https://www.financialexpress.com/bud...-2023/1843401/