Bengaluru-Chennai express highway will reduce travel time between the two metro cities to just two hours, Nitin Gadkari said. Union Road Transport and Highways Minister Nitin Gadkari on Thursday said the highly-anticipated Bengaluru-Chennai expressway will be opened to the public earlier that expected, by 2023 end or latest by January next year. The greenfield project is being built at a cost of ₹17,000 crore and was earlier stipulated to be ready by March 2024.

The expressway is set to reduce travel time between the two metro cities to just two hours. It is a 285.3 kilometre long, four lane project. Gadkari was speaking to reporters at the 75th anniversary celebrations of Ashok Leyland in Chennai on Thursday.“I reviewed the progress of National Highways projects in Chennai today. The Bengaluru-Chennai express highway will start by this year-end or January 2024. So, you can launch luxury buses and sleeper coaches in this sector,” the minister told news agency PTI.

“We are making good roads. We are connecting Delhi to Chennai via Surat, Nasik, Ahmednagar, Kurnool, Chennai (and beyond to), Kanyakumari, Thiruvananthapuram, Kochi (and also to) Bengaluru and Hyderabad, through the access-controlled highways project,” he added.He further stated that he was satisfied over the pace of National Highway projects and that the work on the Chennai Port-Maduravoyal Elevated Expressway project would also commence soon. The minister also said he launched Ashok Leyland’s vehicle which can run on methanol-blended fuel, in Bengaluru.