Ahmedabad-Vadodara Expressway (Gujarat)

Also known as Mahatma Gandhi Expressway or National Expressway 1, this 95 km stretch is India’s first 4-lane e-way project and started operations in 2004. It connects the two major industrial hubs in Gujarat, cutting down the travel time to less than one hour from the earlier 2.5 hours. The e-way is part of the Golden Quadrilateral project by the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) and it is now being upgraded to 6 lanes at a cost of Rs 3,300 crore. The project is to be executed on DBFOT (design, build, finance, operate and transfer) basis and delivered in BOT (build, operate, transfer) mode. Originally built at a cost of Rs 475 crore, the expressway currently features two lanes on each side and one service lane, along with exits at Nadiad (50 km from Vadodara) and Anand (35 km from Vadodara). Apart from the Ahmedabad-Vadodara e-way, a 140 km stretch between Ahmedabad and Udaipur and another 56 km of the Gandhidham-Shamkhiyali (Kutch) segment will also be developed as six-lane roads.

Image: Wikimedia Commons