The Indian government on Sunday inaugurated the first phase of the country’s longest expressway connecting the capital Delhi with Mumbai.
According to the news agency AFP, this $13 billion project will cut the travel time between Delhi and Mumbai by half and after that the journey will be only 12 hours.
India is scrambling to upgrade its decades-old infrastructure to compete economically with regional rival China.
‘Delhi’ on the signboard installed on this new four-lane highway. The words Vadodara, Mumbai Expressway are mentioned while the total length of this route is 1386 km (861 mi).
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday inaugurated its first phase (initial 246 km route) that will connect Delhi to Rajasthan’s Jaipur.
Narendra Modi said on the occasion that it is a ‘symbol of progress in India’.
He said that this type of investment in railways, highways, subway lines and air bases will increase the productivity of the country as well as lead to more investment and creation of new jobs.
It is to be noted that after the clashes with China over the Line of Actual Control in Ladakh in 2020, India is trying to improve its internal supply chain with the aim of countering China’s hegemony.
Narendra Modi’s government has not only started work on several important projects in the recent period but also increased the expenditure on infrastructure by 33%.
According to AFP, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi is expected to inaugurate at least a dozen new projects in railways, highways, expressways and ports in the next few months.