How a 1,350-kilometre artery will halve travel time between India's two largest cities

Countries & Cities · Published 12 October 2026 Swipe more like this →

In short: Connecting the nation's political heart to its financial engine, the Delhi–Mumbai Expressway is more than just a road. This massive greenfield project aims to slash a 24-hour journey down to just 12 hours, reshaping logistics and connectivity across five Indian states and one union territory.

India's most extensive expressway is the Delhi–Mumbai Expressway, which is also identified as NE 4. This ambitious greenfield project spans 1,350 kilometres, utilizing an eight-lane design that is expandable to 12 lanes. Designed for strategic connectivity, this path joins Mumbai's Jawaharlal Nehru Port with Gurugram's Sohna Elevated Corridor, traversing key centres including Surat, Vadodara, and Kota. The route begins at the junction of the Ring Road and DND Flyway in Maharani Bagh. It traverses several regions, including 373 km through Rajasthan and 426 km through Gujarat.

The scale of the infrastructure is immense. To realize this network, approximately 15,000 hectares of land were acquired. The project is divided into four primary sections, managed through 52 construction packages and tenders awarded to roughly 20 different companies. The financial architecture is equally complex; the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) established a special-export vehicle, DME Development Limited (DMEDL), to manage construction and operations through a sustainable, self-liquidating financing model. The NHAI began the design process for a 30 km side spur in October 2021 to link the Noida International Airport with Ballabhgarh. Construction for the first 24 km package in Gujarat actually commenced in December 2018.

While the core expressway runs from Sohna to Virar at 1,198 km, the total length is extended by two end-sections: the 59 km DND–Faridabad–KMP stretch and the 92 km Virar–JNPT link. The network even includes greenfield spurs, such as the 32 km Faridabad–Jewar Expressway and the 67 km Bandikui–Jaipur Expressway. As of March 2026, the project remains a massive undertaking with a total estimated value of around ₹1,00,000 crores, or approximately US$13.1 billion. The total network length reaches 1,450 km when including the additional spurs. This massive infrastructure project involves the acquisition of land across Delhi, Haryana, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat, and Maharashtra.

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