'Land acquisition cost for new Delhi-Mumbai expressway to be lower'

New alignment for the greenfield Delhi-Mumbai express highway is likely to reduce land acquisition cost by up to Rs 20,000 crore as the highway will travel through backward and undeveloped areas, Union Minister Nitin Gadkari said on Tuesday.

The proposed project will also cut travel distance between the two metros by 125 km.

The minister said as compared to land acquisition cost of Rs 7 crore per hectare for the existing highway between Delhi and Mumbai, the new alignment will see land acquisition cost reduce to Rs 70 to 80 lakh per hectare.

The government has planned to build a new express highway connecting Delhi and Mumbai on a new alignment at a cost of Rs 1 lakh crore.

"Land acquisition for the new Delhi-Mumbai express highway will cost Rs 16,000 crore to Rs 20,000 crore less. The new alignment will be from Ring Road of Delhi to Jaipur to Alwar from where it will reach Sawai Madhopur to Mumbai via Vadodara," the Road Transport & Highways minister said on the sidelines of an event here.

Addressing an event by Transport Corporation of India (TCI) for the launch of "Insurance Requirements of the Indian Logistics & Warehousing industry and their Customers" Gadkari said not only travel distance between both the metropolises will reduce by 125 km but one can reach Mumbai from Delhi in 11 hours on car.

He said the Vadodara to Mumbai part will be built at a cost of Rs 44,000 crore in five packages and work is likely to begin in a month as tenders have been already out.