PM Modi to inaugurate first section of Delhi-Mumbai expressway on Feb 12

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will inaugurate the 246-km Delhi-Dausa-Lalsot section of the Delhi-Mumbai Expressway on Sunday, with the new stretch set to reduce the travel time from the national capital to Jaipur from five hours to around three and a half hours.

Developed at a cost of more than Rs 12,150 crore, this first completed section of the Delhi-Mumbai Expressway will provide a major boost to the economic development of the entire region, the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) said.

Modi will launch road development projects worth more than Rs 18,100 crore from Dausa and will visit Karnataka on Monday to inaugurate the 14th edition of Aero India 2023 at the Air Force Station, Yelahanka in Bengaluru.

The Delhi-Mumbai Expressway will be the India's longest with the length of 1,386 km. It will reduce travel distance between Delhi and Mumbai by 12 per cent, from 1,424 km to 1,242 km, while the travel time will be cut by 50 per cent, from the current 24 hours to 12 hours, it said.

The expressway will pass through six states of Delhi, Haryana, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat and Maharashtra and connect major cities like Kota, Indore, Jaipur, Bhopal, Vadodara and Surat.

It will also serve 93 PM Gati Shakti Economic Nodes, 13 ports, eight major airports and eight multi-modal logistics parks (MMLPs) along with spurs to new upcoming greenfield airports such as Jewar Airport, Navi Mumbai Airport and JNPT port.

During the programme, Modi will also lay the foundation stone of 247 kilometres of national highway projects to be developed at a cost of more than Rs 5,940 crore. About the prime minister's programme in Bengaluru, the PMO noted that the theme of Aero India 2023 is The Runway to a Billion Opportunities.