News Brief
Centre Plans ‘Golden Quadrilateral 2.0’ With New High-Speed Expressways To Link India’s Key Economic Hubs: Report
Expressway (Representative Image)
The Union government is preparing to launch a second phase of the Golden Quadrilateral network, introducing new high-speed expressways designed to connect India’s major economic hubs, Live Mint reported, citing officials.
The plan envisions a seamless web of access-controlled corridors along the existing East–West and North–South routes, to be developed within the next five to seven years.
The new expressways will serve as high-speed alternatives to the country’s increasingly congested highways, easing freight movement and reducing India’s logistics costs, currently among the highest in the world, Livemint reported citing two officials familiar with the plan.
These expressways, part of the government’s Vision 2047 framework, will strengthen connectivity between industrial centres located beyond the original Golden Quadrilateral network.
The Ministry of Road Transport and Highways has already sanctioned 9,000 km of expressway projects and plans to award another 10,000 km during 2025–27.
While the overall length and investment outlay for the new corridors are yet to be finalised, the construction cost of high-speed expressways can reportedly exceed Rs 40 crore per km, depending on terrain and land acquisition expenses.
Bhavik Damodar of Deloitte India estimated the initial cost of a 17,000 km expressway network at Rs 11 trillion, suggesting that a mix of public-private partnerships and budgetary support would make the plan viable.
According to an official cited in the Livemint report, the plan mirrors the existing Golden Quadrilateral and the East-West and North-South highway corridors.
The official added that all planned high-speed corridors will be either parallel to these networks or supplement them.
