The completion schedule for the Delhi-Mumbai Expressway has been revised to October 2025, with 82% or 1136 km of the total 1386 km completed, according to Nitin Gadkari, the Minister of Road Transport and Highways. He provided this update in response to a question in the Rajya Sabha on Wednesday.
This corridor, which connects major economic centers in Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, Haryana, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat, and Maharashtra, will reduce the distance from Delhi to the Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust (JNPT) by about 180 km and cut travel time to connected destinations by up to 50%, the minister added.
Addressing a question about vehicle recalls, the minister noted that 0.71 million motor vehicles were recalled in 2024 up to July 25, marking the second highest number since 2021 when 1.33 million vehicles were recalled. Of the vehicles recalled this year, 0.68 million were two-wheelers and 27,607 were passenger cars. The data indicates that 0.28 million vehicles were recalled in both 2022 and 2023.
Since 2021, a total of 2.62 million vehicles have been recalled in the country due to safety defects, as per data maintained by the Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM) under its voluntary recall code, the minister stated.
Additionally, the length of national highways in India has increased by 1.6 times, from 91,287 km in March 2014 to 1,46,126 km at present. The government has constructed 98,021 km of national highways at an expenditure of Rs 14.55 lakh crore since April 2014.
The budgetary allocation for the ministry has risen from about Rs 31,130 crore in 2013-14 to approximately Rs 2,84,000 crore in 2024-25, the ministry mentioned in response to another question in the Rajya Sabha.