National Highways Authority of India is an autonomous agency of the Government of India which is primarily responsible for management of a network of over 50,000 km of National Highways out of 1,15,000 km in the country.
In an interesting turn of events, NHAI is all geared up to kick-start construction work on the Delhi-Mumbai Expressway in March, less than a year after when the government announced to construct a signal-free access-controlled corridor between the two cities.
NHAI will start its work on another 22 stretches by mid-February, as confirmed by the officials. “The land acquisition is at the last stage in Haryana. We will be in a position to start work any time between February 15 and March second week,” said an official.
It should be noted that the main aim of the project is to cut down the travel time between the two cities. i.e time cut from 25 hours to 12 and a half hours. This upcoming project will be the longest expressway in India to be passing through five states.
“Now there is a clear line of action. We have fast-tracked the land acquisition process and since the expressway mostly passes through uninhabited areas, getting land is easy. For each package, we are getting at least four bidders and all of them are good performing contractors. Since the works are fully funded by the government, construction can start soon,” said a highway ministry official.
The massive project is expected to be completed by March 2022. In another sensational development, one more stretch from Vadodara to Mumbai is already under construction.
