Delhi Ahead In Metro And Road Connectivity While Mumbai Slowly Catching Up

While India’s national capital, Delhi, has over six expressways to ferry goods and people around the NCR (National Capital Region), higher than Mumbai, the country's financial capital, as reported by Business Standard (BS).

There seems to be a marked difference between how India’s two most important cities have fared regarding providing greater connectivity to their residents. In the last year alone, three new expressways - the Eastern Peripheral Expressway (Kundli-Ghaziabad-Palwal), the Delhi-Meerut Expressway and the Western Peripheral Expressway (Kundli-Manesar-Palwal) - have come up in Delhi.

Also, Delhi Metro, which is the largest metro rail network ( 317-km long) in the country, has continued to expand at a rapid pace, increasing the number of stations and adding new lines. It should be noted that the urban agglomeration of Delhi has an estimated population of 2.59 crore, which is larger than that of Mumbai’s, which stands at 1.93 crore.

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Commenting on the lack of growth in infrastructure development of Mumbai over the years, a government official noted, “the city’s infrastructure projects are being developed from a crisis management point of view. They should have been developed earlier from a future planning perspective.”

However, the city has taken up building its metro network on a war-footing, and it is expected to be fully operational by 2022. Also, the government plans to commission the Rs 4,700 crores Mumbai- Nagpur expressway, as early as next year. Maharashtra's Maharashtra State Road Development Corporation (MSDRC), has issued tenders to build the Mumbai Coastal Road, that will provide better connectivity along the city’s coastline,