Gurugram, Apr 5 (IANS): Union Road Transport and Highways Minister Nitin Gadkari will on Thursday review the progress of the Delhi-Mumbai expressway project in Haryana's Nuh district.

The foundation stone for the project was laid in March 2019.

The 1,250 km long expressway to pass through Haryana, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat and Maharashtra, will cut travel time between Delhi and Mumbai by 13 hours from 24 hours.

Recently, the Minister and the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) claimed in a statement that a section of the expressway will be operational in the second half of 2022.

It is expected that the proposed 12-lane expressway will ease traffic congestion on Pune-Mumbai expressway and other highways as well as bring down vehicular pollution in the national capital. Besides, vehicles including buses and trucks can ply on the route at 120 kmph speed.

The total estimated cost of the Delhi-Mumbai expressway project is about Rs 87,453 crore, including land acquisition cost of about Rs 20,589 crore.

The carriageway will run parallel to the Delhi-Alwar route in Haryana and will exit the state at Kolgaon.

In Rajasthan, the Delhi-Mumbai Expressway will pass through Bharatpur, Malakhera, Rajgarh, Jaipur, Sawai Madhopur, Indragarh, Kota and Rawatbhata. In Madhya Pradesh, the highway will cross Bhanpura, Garoth, Neemuch, Mandsaur, Jaora, Ratlam and Thandla. In Maharashtra, the expressway will pass through Thane and Palghar to end at Mumbai.

The upcoming expressway, will have India's first animal bridges. These will be designed to keep the wildlife section unaffected from the new infrastructure. There will be around five such animal bridges, passing through Ranthambore wildlife corridor and Mukundra wildlife sanctuaries in Rajasthan.

Also, the toll collection on the stretch will be through Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) technology. An initiative of the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MoRTH) for implementing electronic toll collection across the national highways in India.