India’s mega projects slash travel times

India's infrastructure projects are drastically reducing travel times between cities and remote regions. Significant improvements have been made to roadways, railways, and airways.

Bridges across major rivers like the Bhupen Hazarika Setu have cut travel times dramatically, reducing the journey between Assam and Arunachal Pradesh from six hours to one. In Assam, the Bogibeel Bridge shortened a nearly full-day trip to Dhemaji to just two hours. Mumbai's Atal Setu and the Mumbai Trans Harbour Link have dramatically shortened travel times between Navi Mumbai and the city, cutting the journey from hours to minutes.

Railway tunnels have taken traffic through mountains, instead of around them. The Atal Tunnel on the Manali-Leh route has reduced travel time by nearly five hours, while the Dr Syama Prasad Mookerjee Tunnel has cut the Jammu-Srinagar route by 30 km, saving two hours. The Banihal-Qazigund tunnel has also reduced travel time by 90 minutes.

India's expressway network is connecting major cities more efficiently. The Delhi-Meerut Expressway has reduced the journey between the two cities from two and a half hours to fifty minutes. The Bengaluru-Mysuru route has seen a similar improvement, cutting travel time from nearly three hours to around seventy-five minutes.

The Delhi-Dehradun Economic Corridor has shortened travel time from over six hours to two and a half hours. Major inter-city routes are also seeing significant reductions, such as the Delhi-Amritsar-Katra Expressway, which is expected to cut the Delhi-Amritsar journey from eight hours to four, and the Delhi-Katra journey from fourteen hours to six.

Vande Bharat trains are speeding up existing railway routes. Under the 2026 timetable, 549 trains have been speeded up, with some gaining up to an hour in travel time. The Vande Bharat services between New Delhi and Varanasi are around 40-50% faster than previous services, and the Katra-Srinagar service can save two to three hours.

The Mumbai-Ahmedabad High-Speed Rail Corridor, planned to operate at 320 kmph, will reduce the Mumbai-Ahmedabad journey from around one and a half hours to one hour and fifty-eight minutes. The government has identified seven high-speed rail corridors covering nearly 4,000 km, with an estimated investment of around Rs 16 lakh crore.

Expected journey times include Delhi-Varanasi around 3 hours 50 minutes, Chennai-Bengaluru at about 1 hour 13 minutes, and Mumbai-Pune at around 48 minutes once the respective high-speed corridors are developed.