Soon India is going under construction of Mumbai- Delhi Expressway which will have the first-ever animal overpass on the lines of “animal bridges” in the Netherlands for safe passage of wildlife. It is outlined to make sure there is no annoyance to the Ranthambore Wildlife Corridor connecting Ranthambhore and Mukundra (Darrah) wildlife sanctuaries in Rajasthan.
TOI mentioned the Rajasthan government to the central wildlife board has accepted and approved this plan, and is expected to be taken up next week. The NHAI has given the work to an infrastructure major and the agreement would be signed next week.
The further government said, the infrastructure of the highway will be natural-looking over the corridor and will give safety for wildlife across the expressway.
Hence, as a result, there will be no possibility of any dispute as the wild animals will get such passage at every 500 meters interval. The passages will be developed as part of a forest corridor with trees so that animals find it natural.
The source also mentioned that the NHAI showed their eagerness towards this project as this will acknowledge as a sustainable model of development and for mitigation of the wildlife-traffic conflict.
However, according to Transport and Highways Minister Nitin Gadkari’s statement, it is estimated that the Delhi-Mumbai Expressway project will be completed by 2022. The Delhi-Mumbai Expressway, one of seven currently under construction, will help in decreasing logistic time and cost along with the key manufacturing hubs in the country.
Here are a few key points to know about the multi-crore Delhi-Mumbai Expressway Project:
- The Expressway is formulated as a 1,320 km greenfield project with an approx cost of around Rs 90,000 crore. Currently, it takes 24 hours to travel from Mumbai to Delhi via the National Highway 8, but this highway will allow you to cut short the travel time to just 13 hours.
- The overall development work of the Expressway will be completed in 51 packages. The expressway will pass through a slew of underdeveloped regions such as Mewat, Ratlam, and Dahod. It will also pass through multiple states such as Haryana, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat, and Maharashtra.
- It will be an access-controlled Expressway and will provide reliable infrastructure and better safety. The project will include four multilevel interchanges along with elevated ramps or service roads. It will provide direct connectivity to Delhi IGI Airport’s T3 terminal via a 5 km-long shallow tunnel. It will also boast crossroads underpasses at crucial junctions as well as intelligent transportation systems (ITS).
- The expressway will have eight lanes with a provision for its expansion to 12 lanes in order to meet future traffic growth. As per officials, 73 wayside amenities will come up along the expressway at every 50-km interval. These facilities will have restaurants, food courts, dormitories, convenience stores, fuel stations, toilets, and helipads as well.
