Mumbai, Sept. 28 -- India's expanding network of expressways, bridges, tunnels and faster trains is reducing travel time across major routes, according to a factsheet highlighted by the Press Information Bureau. The projects are replacing longer routes, difficult terrain and river crossings with more direct connections, improving links between cities and remote regions.

The Delhi-Mumbai Expressway is being developed to reduce the road journey between the two cities to about 12 hours from roughly 33 hours. The Delhi-Meerut Expressway has cut travel time from around 2.5 hours to about 50 minutes, while the Bengaluru-Mysuru Expressway has reduced the journey from nearly three hours to about 75 minutes. The Delhi-Dehradun Economic Corridor has brought its journey down from more than six hours to around 2.5 hours.

Other projects have produced similar gains. The Delhi-Amritsar-Katra Expressway has reduced travel from Delhi to Amritsar from eight hours to four hours and the Delhi-Katra journey from 14 hours to six hours. In the Northeast, the Bhupen Hazarika Setu reduced travel between Assam and Arunachal Pradesh from six hours to one hour, while the Bogibeel Bridge brought some journeys down from almost a day to one or two hours.

Tunnels have improved all-weather access through mountainous areas. The 9.02-km Atal Tunnel saves four to five hours on the Manali-Sarchu route, while the Dr Syama Prasad Mookerjee Tunnel and the Banihal-Qazigund twin-tube tunnel have reduced travel on the Jammu-Srinagar route. The Sela Tunnel has cut more than an hour from the Tezpur-Tawang journey.

Rail services are also becoming faster. The 2026 timetable accelerated 549 trains, while Vande Bharat services have reduced travel on routes including Katra-Srinagar, Banaras-Khajuraho and Ernakulam-Bengaluru. The Mumbai-Ahmedabad High-Speed Rail Corridor is targeted for August 2027 and is designed to cut the journey to about 1 hour 58 minutes. Seven further corridors announced in the Union Budget would span nearly 4,000 km, with estimated investment of Rs. 1.6 tn.

Published by HT Digital Content Services with permission from Construction World.