In news– Recently, the Union Minister for Road Transport and Highways announced that the Government is constructing the world’s longest highway, the Delhi-Mumbai Express highway.
About the world’s longest highway-
- The expressway is 1,380 km long and is being constructed for Rs 98,000 crores.
- The expressway passes through the six states of Delhi, Haryana, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat, and Maharashtra.
- The foundation stone was laid on 9 March 2019.
- It will improve the connectivity to economic hubs like Jaipur, Kishangarh, Ajmer, Kota, Chittorgarh, Udaipur, Bhopal, Ujjain, Indore, Ahmedabad, Vadodara, Surat bringing economic prosperity to millions.
- The expressway will connect urban centers of Delhi through Delhi-Faridabad-Sohna section of the corridor along with a spur to Jewar Airport and Jawaharlal Nehru Port to Mumbai through a spur in Mumbai.
- One other unique aspect of the Delhi Mumbai Expressway is the setting up of 94-way side amenities(WSA) to improve user convenience and safety along the corridor.
- Way side amenities will house petrol pumps, motels, rest areas, restaurants and shops.
- These Wayside amenities will also have helipads for increasing connectivity and evacuating people in case of medical emergencies.
- The expressway will also include two iconic 8-lane tunnels, one tunneling through Mukundra sanctuary without disturbing the endangered fauna in the region for 4 km and the second 4 km eight-lane tunnel will pass through the Matheran eco-sensitive zone.
- The eight-lane access-controlled expressway can be expanded to a 12-lane expressway depending on the volume of traffic.
- In addition to this, the Expressway will generate annual fuel savings of more than 320 million liters and reduce CO2 emissions by 850 million Kg which is equivalent to the planting of 40 million trees.
- It will reduce travel time between Delhi and Mumbai from nearly 24 hours to 12 hours and shorten the distance by 130 km.
- The DME will have 3 animal and 5 overpasses with a combined length of 7 km dedicated for unencumbered wildlife movement.
- This is the first in Asia and only the second in the world to feature animal overpasses to facilitate unrestricted movement of wildlife.
- The work would be completed by March 2023.
NATRAX- the High Speed Track(HST) -Indore-
- It is Asia’s longest and world’s fifth longest High Speed Track for automobiles.
- NATRAX, developed in an area of 1000 acres of land , is a one stop solution for all sorts of high speed performance tests for widest categories of vehicles from 2 wheelers to heavy tractor trailers.
Source: PIB
