Ruchir Sharma, one of India’s most widely read economic and market gurus, has a rule of thumb he has held for 34 years of election travel across the country. No matter how good the road looks, point-to-point travel in India averages 50 km per hour. Sharma explained how it has not changed in 50 years.
This is primarily the result of congestion before hitting the highways. As the Ganga Expressway readies for its inauguration, the government says travel time between the two cities will fall from 10–12 hours to 6–7 hours. Whether it actually does, and stays that way, is the real question.
The last mile congestion and connectivity concerns
The Chairman of Rockefeller International, Founder & CIO of Breakout Capital and acclaimed author, in conversation with Anant Goenka, Executive Director, The Indian Express Group, at the Express Adda, recounted how road travel has evolved in India since the 1980s.
Talking about the drive from Delhi to Bijnor, about 200 km, he pointed out that it used to take four hours in the 1980s when there was only 1 lane highway. However, even now it still takes four hours. The roads in between may look better, but the last few miles at either end are choked, encroachments creep in, and the average speed never really improves. “Every time you account for 50 km an hour point to point — that’s the average, and it hasn’t changed in 50 years,” he said.
It is against this backdrop that the Ganga Expressway, set to be inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on April 29, enters the picture.
The 594-km corridor connecting Meerut to Prayagraj is being built with a design speed of 120 km/h.
What the expressway promises
The Ganga Expressway, developed by the Uttar Pradesh Expressways Industrial Development Authority (UPEIDA), is a six-lane, access-controlled greenfield corridor and the 594-km corridor connecting Meerut to Prayagraj is being built with a design speed of 120 km/hour. Its foundation stone was laid in Shahjahanpur in December 2021, and the total investment across all 12 construction packages exceeds Rs 36,200 crore.
The corridor passes through 12 districts of Meerut, Hapur, Bulandshahr, Amroha, Sambhal, Badaun, Shahjahanpur, Hardoi, Unnao, Raebareli, Pratapgarh, and Prayagraj. It has been built to eight-lane specifications on all major structures, meaning future widening will not require rebuilding bridges or underpasses. The right of way is 120 metres for most of the stretch.
The expressway is access-controlled, which in practice means there are no random entry or exit points. Traffic enters and exits only at designated nodes. There are 18 such access nodes along the corridor, connected to national highways, state highways, and major district roads through trumpet and diamond interchanges.
Where Sharma’s paradox has historically played out
The problem that was highlighted by Sharma does not lie in the middle but the two ends.
A new expressway typically connects two points cleanly, but most travellers are not going from one expressway plaza to another. They are going from a neighbourhood in Meerut to a street in Prayagraj, or to a town somewhere in between. The last few kilometres on either side often run through older roads,, state highways or district roads, where encroachments, slow-moving traffic, and poor maintenance eat into whatever time was saved on the expressway itself.
What is different this time
The Ganga Expressway has a few design features that are at least aimed at the right problem.
The project report released by UPEIDA states that the 18 intermediate access nodes are connected to existing highways, which means the expressway is not an isolated corridor. A traveller from Shahjahanpur or Hardoi does not need to travel to Meerut or Prayagraj just to get on the road; they can enter or exit closer to where they actually need to go.
On top of that, there are nine wayside amenity complexes along the route to offer fuel, food and rest areas for the travellers.
There is also the airstrip near Shahjahanpur, a 3.5-km stretch built for emergency use by Indian Air Force aircraft, which has already conducted a trial landing.
The tolling design
One detail in the project report that directly addresses Sharma’s concern is the choice of a closed tolling system. Under this model, a driver stops only twice, once at entry, once at exit, and pays based on the distance actually travelled, not a flat rate.
The alternative, an open tolling system, requires stops at multiple intermediate points. Each stop means deceleration, queuing, and re-acceleration, which will basically compound into a longer journey. The project report notes that eliminating these stops also reduces fuel consumption.
As per media reports, proposed toll rates are around Rs 2.55 per km for cars, which comes to Rs 1,500 approximately for the entire stretch. The UP govt has not confirmed the rates yet.
Ganga Expressway: The scale of construction
To understand what Rs 36,200 crore looks like on the ground, consider Package 9 alone, a 53-km stretch in Unnao that cost Rs 2,755 crore. In this single segment, the project built dozens of large and small bridges, nearly 80 culverts, multiple underpasses, a flyover, a diamond interchange, and a planned rail over-bridge to avoid railway crossing delays, as per the project report.
Delhi-Dehradun Economic Corridor
In fact, the Government has already moved to address congestion risks even as the newly opened Delhi–Dehradun Economic Corridor begins operations. The expressway, which aims to cut travel time between the two cities from nearly six hours to about 2.5 hours, is being complemented by a 12-km greenfield, access-controlled bypass being built by the National Highways Authority of India at a cost of around Rs 716 crore, as per PIB data.
The four-lane bypass will connect Jhajhra to the corridor near the Asharori check post, acting as an alternate south-western route to divert non-destined traffic away from Dehradun’s urban core towards Selaqui, Vikasnagar, Herbertpur and even Paonta Sahib. With about 44% of construction already complete and a target deadline of April 2027, the project is designed to ease congestion, cut vehicular pollution, and improve inter-state connectivity to northern markets such as Haryana, Punjab and Himachal Pradesh.
The question that remains
The Ganga Expressway, with its access-controlled design, closed tolling system, and 18 intermediate nodes, promises to bring Meerut and Prayagraj within 6–7 hours of each other. Whether it holds that promise over time or whether Sharma’s rule proves itself again, we will have to wait and watch.