The travel time between Mumbai and Bengaluru could soon reduce to just five hours, Union Minister Nitin Gadkari recently promised. The Minister of State Transport and Highways (MoRTH) was addressing a virtual press conference at the Association Of National Exchanges Members Of India (ANMI)'s 12th International Convention on October 15, 2022. He said that the government is planning a new green express highway that will connect the Maharashtra and Karnataka state capitals within just five hours. He further said that the travel time between Pune and Bengaluru will reduce to 3.5-4 hours. Details on when the new highway will be operational are yet to be announced.
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Speaking about infrastructure development, Gadkari said, "We are planning a green express highway between Mumbai and Bangalore. It will be a five hours journey between Mumbai-Bangalore and 3.5 to 4 hours between Pune and Bangalore." He further mentioned that the Mumbai-Pune Express Highway will take a turn from near the Ring Road of Pune and start as the Highway towards Bangalore.
Images used only for representational purpose
The new green highway is part of MoRTH's ambitious infrastructure plan that aims to massively improve road connectivity across the country. About 27 green express highways have been planned under the same. Gadkari said, "By end of this year, there will be highways connecting Delhi-Dehradun in 2 hours, Delhi-Hardwar in 2 hours, Delhi-Jaipur in 2 hours, Delhi-Chandigarh in 2.5 hours, Delhi-Amritsar in 4 hours, Delhi-Srinagar in 8 hours, Delhi-Katra in 6 hours, Delhi- Mumbai in 10 hours, Chennai-Bangalore in 2 hours, and Lucknow-Kanpur in half an hour.
Highway projects connecting Gorakhpur to Siliguri and Varanasi to Kolkata are also on the cards. "Just like the National Water Grid, we want to develop a National Highway Grid," said the minister. He also stated that income from tolls has come to Rs. 40,000 crore at present and will rise to Rs. 1.40 lakh crore by the end of 2024.
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At present, the distance between Mumbai and Bengaluru is about 1,000 km and takes about 17 hours by road via NH 4. However, the new green express highway is expected to bypass some of the current towns on the way and reduce the distance by a considerable margin. Moreover, the government has also greenlit several connectivity projects including the Mumbai Trans Harbour Link that will connect South Mumbai to Navi Mumbai. It will be the longest sea bridge to be built in India and will connect directly with the Mumbai-Pune Expressway. There's also the Mumbai Pune Missing Link Project that will bypass the Khandala ghat on the expressway and is expected to reduce the travel time between both cities by 25 minutes.
Nitin Gadkari also said that the central government is planning to take over state highways with high traffic density from the state governments for a period of 25 years. It will convert these highways into four or six-lane routes. The centre will then collect tolls from those highways for a period of 12-13 years to recover the investment.
Images Source: MoRTH
