Bengaluru-Chennai Expressway will be ready by March 2024: Nitin Gadkari

The Bengaluru-Chennai expressway, a 285.3-km new highway that promises to reduce travel time between the two cities to just over two hours, will be ready by March 2024 or even before, Union Minister of Road and Transport Nitin Gadkari said on Thursday.

The target seems ambitious considering physical progress. While the project's 71-km first phase (which falls entirely in Karnataka) is 37.56 per cent complete, the second and third phases (which fall mostly in Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu) are just about 10 per cent complete.

The expressway is officially called National Expressway 7 and is the first in South India. It is being built by the National Highways Authority of India under the Bharatmala Pariyojana at a cost of Rs 16,730 crore. Work has been split into 10 packages (three each in Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh and four in Tamil Nadu). Construction began at different times in 2021 and 2022.

The expressway has two parts — a 262-km stretch between Hoskote (near Bengaluru) and Sriperumbudur (near Chennai) and a 22.6-km elevated road from Sriperumbudur to Madurvoyal (in Chennai).

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On Thursday, Gadkari inspected the expressway construction at Vadaganahalli, about six kilometres from Hoskote, on Bengaluru's eastern outskirts. He later addressed the media.

According to Gadkari, work is ongoing on 231 km of the 262-km stretch while construction will begin soon on the remaining 31 km as the contract has been awarded. "Some forest clearance is still awaited," he said. "Our goal is to open it by January 26 or latest by March 2024."

He predicted that by next year, there would be no need for flights between Bengaluru and Chennai.

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The NHAI will also rejuvenate waterbodies along the expressway and undertake landscaping around them, he said. A bird sanctuary has also been planned, the minister said.

Gadkari promised that the expressway would boost economic activities in three states and help bring down the cost of transporting goods from Bengaluru to the Chennai port. He said the logistics cost in India was 16 per cent, as against 8 per cent in China and 12 per cent in the US and Europe. "We are aiming for logistics costs in the single digits," he added.

To a question, he said toll charges for the expressway had not been decided as yet.

All about the Bengaluru-Chennai Expressway

1) Runs for 77.2 km in Karnataka, 91.4 km in Andhra Pradesh and 93.7 km in Tamil Nadu. Total: 262.3 km. There will be an additional 22.6-km elevated highway from Sriperumbudur to Madurvoyal in Chennai. Total length: 285.3 km.

2) Will connect Bengaluru with towns like Malur, Bangarpet, KGF and Bethamangala in Karnataka.

3) About 50 km shorter than the most popular existing national highway that links Bengaluru to Chennai via Hosur and Krishnagiri.

4) Designed for a speed of 120 km to cut travel time between Bengaluru and Chennai from six hours to 2.15 hours.

5) There will be a cloverleaf interchange and two trumpet interchanges in Karnataka.