Mumbai to Bengaluru in five hours? Nitin Gadkari promises new expressway

You may soon prefer travelling in a car from Mumbai to Bengaluru than take a train or a flight. Union Minister Nitin Gadkari has promised that it will not take more than five hours to cover the distance between the two cities once a green express highway comes up. The Union Minister promised that the new expressway is being planned and will be executed soon. The National Highways Authority of India (NHAI), under its ambitious national road network project, is expected to take up the job.

Gadkari, while addressing an event on Monday, 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." The green express highway, which is currently under planning, is likely to connect the Mumbai-Pune Expressway too through a ring road.

The distance between the business capital of India and the IT capital is 985 kms. The two cities are connected through National Highway 48 or National Highway 50. Currently it takes more than 15 hours to cover the distance between Mumbai and Bengaluru by road. The new green express highway will reduce the travel time to one third.

The upcoming green express highway will add to a string of high-speed expressways connecting several cities across India. In recent times, highways such Delhi-Meerut Expressway, Purvanchal Expressway have significantly reduced travel time for those who prefer driving.

Gadkari has assured that by the end of this year more such highways will come up. “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," said Gadkari.

Recently, the Union Minister said that his ministry plans to take over state highways with high traffic density to transform them in the next 25 years. He said his department will help these highways by adding four to six lanes to improve traffic movement.

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