Be It Intracity Or Inter-city, These 5 Expressways Make Travelling A Breeze

The first phase of this project, the popular and the spectacular Bandra-Worli Sea Link (officially called Rajiv Gandhi Sea Link), connects Bandra in the western suburbs with Worli in the south with a cable-stayed bridge over the Mahim Bay. The 8-lane bridge, mostly supported by steel viaducts and covering a stretch of 6 km, became fully operational in March 2010. The sea link has cut down travel time to 20-30 minutes from the earlier 60-90 minutes and opened up the overcrowded Mahim Causeway.

This landmark project was managed by Maharashtra State Road Transport Corporation (MSRDC) and developed by the Hindustan Construction Company. The initial budget stood at around Rs 300 crore and the sea link was scheduled to be finished by 2004. But a delay of more than 5 years and frequent changes in plans drove the cost to a whopping Rs 1,600 crore-plus. The vehicle count has been low as well – just 40,000-48,000 a day over the past four years against an expected 1,20,000-75,000.

The sea link is a part of the proposed 8-10 lane Western Freeway, a 29 km stretch between Marine Drive in South Mumbai and Kandivali in the north, which will feature several sea bridges. But surprisingly, talks are now on to develop an alternative called the Coastal Freeway, a proposed 35.6 km road from Manora MLA Hostel at Nariman Point to Kandivali

Image: Gladson Machado/Wikimedia Commons

Here’s India’s second longest and Bangalore’s tallest elevated highway – covering a stretch of nearly 10 km in 10-15 minutes and connecting Silk Board Junction to Electronic City on the Bangalore-Hosur section of NH-7. You will also cross Bommasandra, Chandapura and Attibele junctions on your way. As the elevated toll road is built above the BMIC flyover on Hosur Road, at a height of 17m, it is the city’s tallest flyway as well. 

The 4-lane elevated highway with service roads was built by Bangalore Elevated Tollways Ltd (BETL) that comes under the National Highways Development Project (NHDP) and the Elevated Highways Project. This BOT (build, operate, transfer) project started in early 2006 at an estimated cost of Rs 765 crore, but a 15-month delay raised the costing to Rs 880 crore. The flyover was thrown open to the public in January 2010, subsequently reducing the traffic along the NH-7 stretch.

Image: Wikimedia Commons

Welcome to India’s longest flyover that covers a stretch of 11.6 km and links Rajiv Gandhi International Airport (RGIA) at Shamshabad to the city of Mehdipatnam. The 4-lane e-way starts from Sarojini Devi Eye Hospital at Mehdipatnam and connects Rethibowli, Lakshminagar, Attapur, Hyderguda, Upparapally and Rajendra Nagar before reaching Aramgarh junction on NH-7. It became operational in October 2009, costing Hyderabad Metropolitan Development Authority (HMDA) around Rs 600 crore after the project was considerably delayed.

Although four ramps have been open to traffic from the beginning, the fifth ramp of the PVNR Expressway only got ready in January 2014. A total of six intermediate ramps and three sets of up-and-down ramps at Upparapally, Aramgarh and Lakshminagar were proposed at the outset. Also, unlike other super-fast expressways, speed is a constraint here due to dangerous twists & turns and speed limit is kept at 40-60 km/h.

Image: Walk Through India

This 8-lane access-controlled mega project covers 158 km, encircles the city of Hyderabad and costs a whopping Rs 6,696 crore, with the Japan International Cooperation Agency contributing Rs 3,123 crore. The e-way has been thrown open in a phased manner and around 124 km of the total stretch is now operational. The final phase of 33 km between Shamirpet and Pedda Amberpet is still under construction and might be completed by July 2014. The Hyderabad Metropolitan Development Authority (HMDA) is in charge of this project. 

The expressway features 10 major bridges and 37 minor ones, as well as 2-lane service roads on either side, besides several interchanges (exits). It has a design speed of 120 km/h and is expected to offer better connectivity between NH-9, NH-7, NH-4 and some state highways.

Image: Wikimedia Commons

This 4-lane expressway spans 32 km and links the city suburbs of Tambaram (on NH-45) and Madhavaram (on the junction of NH-5) via Maduravoyal (NH-4). It starts from Irumbuliyur (near Tambaram) while the intersection at Maduravoyal directly leads to Chennai port and another intersection at Madhavaram takes you to Moolakadai and Anna Nagar. The e-way also features an elevated, 6-lane road that passes through key locations including industrial estates and Chennai IT hub. All these diverts help unclog the main city traffic. It also interconnects four highways and traffic from the southern districts of Tamil Nadu can easily bypass Chennai.

Chennai Bypass Expressway was built by the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) as part of its National Highways Development Project (NHDP) and cost around Rs 405 crore. It was thrown open to the public in 2010.

Image: Wikimedia Commons