Delhi-Mumbai Expressway completion pushed to 2027-28 as delays hit Gujarat stretches

The ambitious 1,386 km Delhi-Mumbai Expressway, one of the Centre’s largest infrastructure projects, is now likely to be completed by 2027-28, nearly two years behind its original schedule. Road Transport and Highways Minister Nitin Gadkari informed Parliament.

Ironically, the bottleneck lies in just 87 km of the expressway located in Gujarat. These stretches, package 8 (Jujuwa-Gandeva), package 9 (Karvad-Jujuwa) and package 10 (Talsari-Karvad) on the Vadodara-Virar section that were all awarded in 2021 to Pune-based Roadway Solutions India Infra Ltd (RSIIL). Despite their limited length, the three packages have emerged as a key hurdle for the Rs 1.04 lakh crore mega project.

Two of these contracts were cancelled by the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) in March 2023 due to persistent delays. Fresh tenders were floated, but RSIIL once again emerged as the lowest bidder and was re-awarded the contracts in November 2023. The third package has also faced execution challenges, contributing to cumulative delays on the Gujarat section.

Nitin Gadkari in November had reviewed the delayed stretches along with Gujarat CM Bhupendra Patel.

NHAI officials explained that the authority follows a defined process before taking punitive action against contractors. In cases of delay, a “cure period” notice is first issued, giving the contractor a fixed time to resolve bottlenecks. Only if the issues remain unresolved can NHAI proceed with termination, debarment or blacklisting. In this case, while two contracts were terminated, competitive bidding norms resulted in the same contractor winning them back.

According to data shared in Parliament, the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways has constructed 3,468 km of national highways in the current financial year up to October 2025. However, out of 1,208 NH projects under construction, 649 have spilled beyond their original completion timelines. Of these, 301 projects are delayed by less than a year, 263 by one to three years, and 85 by more than three years, primarily due to factors such as litigation and delays in land acquisition.