Motorists have found a dream run on the Delhi-Mumbai Expressway (DME) but even more excited are the micro, small and medium enterprise (MSME) owners who are happy about the quick turnaround time the DME provides for their logistics.

Although there is still time for this corridor to get fully functional, the industry anticipates that as more motorists shift their route from the older Delhi-Jaipur (NH48) highway to the new DME, the older route will become less congested for transporters.

For the automotive sector located in the Gururgram-Manesar belt as also the Alwar-Bhiwadi section, there is a lot of congestion even now although the highway is smoother compared to a few years ago.

“From the automotive perspective, anything that helps your logistics ultimately brings down costs. Transportation cost is the most crucial challenge we face when it comes to competitiveness. The more congestion we face on the road, the more fuel we consume and our goods consequently become costlier. The target, therefore, is to bring down the logistics cost from 14-16 per cent right now of India’s GDP to around 9 per cent in future,” Sunjay Kapur, President, Automotive Component Manufacturers Association of India (ACMA) and Chairman, Sona Comstar, told businessline.

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He said all the infrastructure being developed is definitely going in the right direction. “One is, of course, logistics. And the second is that driving distance become more doable as the new corridor brings down driving time and making people more mobile,” said Kapur.

Driving distance become more doable as the new corridor brings down driving time and making people more mobile

Driving distance become more doable as the new corridor brings down driving time and making people more mobile | Photo Credit: KAMAL NARANG

The DME will also connect prominent tier-II cities such as Kota, Jaipur, Indore, Bhopal, Vadodara and Surat. In the drive on the newly-inaugurated section of the DME, the businessline team noticed people from nearby cities driving along just to get an experience of the “world-class” road with a width of around 100 ft and four lane on each side.

“The DME Greenway helps any kind of automobile movement – whether it is personal or commercial vehicle – becoming an alternate route and connecting Delhi-Jaipur in lesser duration as compared with the NH48. The traffic on the existing stretch (NH48) will definitely get some relief,” Arun Garg, Advisor – Infrastructure, Rajasthan State Industrial Development and Investment Corporation (RIICO), told businessline.

Asked if automotive belt like Gurugram-Manesar or Alwar-Bhiwadi would also get a boost considering that the DME is at a distance from these belts, he said: “The efficacy of the older highway (NH48) will become better. NH48 was not bad, but with time more traffic started coming leading to congestions all along, but now, Mumbai/Ahmedabad travellers will climb up to the new Expressway to reach Delhi.”

For companies like Maruti Suzuki India, which led to the Gurugram-Manesar industry belt, the new Expressway will significantly help improve the efficiency in logistics, especially now that the company is also coming up with a new plant in Kharkhoda, Haryana. The new highway could be utilised for its logistics too apart from using the Western freight corridor, largely running parallelly on a similar route.

“The DME would significantly help improve efficiency in logistics. We expect the distance to reduce by about 15 per cent and the transit time to reduce by about 25-30 per cent. Net cost reduction would depend upon toll fares also,” Rahul Bharti, Executive Director, Corporate Affairs, Maruti Suzuki India, said.

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