The Vadodara-Mumbai section—the costliest ever at a staggering Rs 6,672 crore for a single section—was high on priority and got the first go-ahead from NHAI last year as it would link the two industrial hubs with a mere five hour drive linking up with the existing 100-km long Ahmedabad-Vadodara expressway. At present, India only has two expressways —92 km between Mumbai and Pune and 93 km between Vadodara-Ahmedabad.

“The expressway will be formed on completely new alignment, hence the need for a full fledged alignment study. This study will be done not just based on the ground situation but essentially through extensive usage of satellite based remote sensing and digital terrain models. The study, which is likely to be done within four months of a bidder being selected, would be the basis of planning, design, development and construction of the expressway,” said a senior official from the Ministry of Shipping, Road Transport & Highways. The project is expected to be completed by December 2015, he added.

The NHAI is looking at an alignment design that will not only optimise transportation cost and efficiency but also be acceptable from social and environmental aspects. The expressway would be so designed that it connects well with the existing National Highway network in the area.

The NHAI has specified in its bid document that the expressway, which is to be designed for a speed of 120kmph, should not affect ecological sensitivities in any manner and agricultural land should not have to be acquired for it. “The idea is to have the alignment cross wasteland and non-agricultural land and yet also be cost efficient,” added the official. The expressway is expected to be out for bidding by May this year.

The other expressways NHAI has decided to construct are between: Delhi and Meerut (Uttar Pradesh), Dhanbad (Jharkhand)-Kolkata and another between Bangalore-Chennai.

The 1,000 km of expressways spread across four routes are likely to cost Rs 16,800 crore and will be covered under phase-VI of National Highways Development Programme (NHDP). They will be implemented on Build-Operate-Transfer (BOT) basis through the NHAI. While NHAI originally was planning 6-7 expressway corridors — including those between Delhi-Chandigarh, Delhi-Jaipur and Delhi-Agra — these were dropped as NH 1, NH 8 and NH 2 respectively which connect these cities are already set to be six-laned and will take care of the traffic demand here as per a prioritisation study conducted by the authority.

The ministry, meanwhile, is planning a larger ‘national grid of expressways’. “A modern economy requires a network of expressways and not just some short corridors. So the ministry has recently invited international consultancy firms to conduct a study using remote sensing technology to recommend on a network of expressways keeping in mind demographic issues,” Secretary Brahm Dutt, Ministry of Shipping Road Transport & Highways, had told The Indian Express last month.

“We want to connect economically significant areas in such a way that there is least amount of displacement, that the access-controlled greenfield sections do not pass through very fertile land even as they take the shortest route. A dedicated division will be created in NHAI for expressway projects with a Chief General manager (CGM) heading it,” Dutt had said.