The various special features of the Delhi–Mumbai Expressway are as follows.
Expandable to 12 lanes Land for an additional four lanes is reserved in the middle of the road for future expansion from 8 lanes to 12 lanes, along with the space for
utilities, plantation and public transport on both sides. This expressway, along with
Western Dedicated Freight Corridor (Western DFC) is a vital backbone of the Delhi-Mumbai Industrial Corridor.
Wayside Amenities The expressway will have Wayside Amenities at 93 places having facilities like
ATM, hotels, retail shops, food courts,
charging stations for electric vehicles and
fuel stations. It will also be the first expressway in India to have
helipads and fully equipped
trauma centers at every 100 km for accident victims. Although this is planned, actual implementation and building of wayside amenities has been very slow, and it is usually advised to stock up on food, water and fuel before entering the motorway.
Electric highway On 25 March 2021, Union Minister
Nitin Gadkari said in
Lok Sabha that there is a plan to develop a stretch of this expressway as an
e-highway (
electric highway) where trucks and buses can run at a speed of 120 km/hour, which will bring down the
logistics cost by 70% as heavy vehicles will run on electricity instead of
diesel.
National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) has started the construction of this project, and is expected to be completed by March 2022. It will also have 4 dedicated lanes for electric vehicles in the entire expressway, out of 8 lanes.
Environment friendly It is being developed as an environment-friendly expressway with a tree cover of 20
lakh trees, watered with
drip irrigation along the entire stretch with a
rainwater harvesting system at every 500 metres. Expressway will be lit using a mix of power supply from state grids and
Solar energy.
Wildlife crossings A combined length of 2.5 km of this 8-lane wide expressway will have run under 5 natural-looking
wildlife crossings on the stretches identified as the known
wildlife corridors between tiger reserves. One of these crossings will be a tunnel in
Mukundara Hills National Park, which will be the country's second 8-lane wide tunnel, after Samruddhi Mahamarg. This will be the second expressway in India to have wildlife crossings, after Samruddhi Mahamarg. The crossing over the expressway will have 8 meters tall
noise barrier walls on either side, and the uncovered stretch of expressway passing through the wildlife corridor will have 6-foot tall walls on both sides of the expressway to prevent animals and pedestrians from entering to minimize the impact of traffic zipping past at speeds up to 120
km/hour. This expressway runs through
Aravalli Wildlife corridors especially affecting corridors in four Tiger Reserves of
Rajasthan, namely
Sariska Tiger Reserve, Mukundara Hills National Park,
Ranthambore National Park and
Ramgarh Vishdhari Wildlife Sanctuary, all of which are important
Tiger reserves of India. Wildlife experts have expressed concerns as there are not sufficient wildlife crossings on this very wide 8-lane expressway, especially between Sariska and Ranthambore reserves as well as Sariska reserve and leopard habitat forests of Delhi-Gurugram-Faridabad-Nuh in
Delhi NCR. This area is also a part of the
leopard corridor of NCR. Additional wildlife crossings are needed at several locations, such as on the alignment near Faridabad (alignment near Nimot-Kot-Dhouj forested hills), hills east of
Bhadas (hill from Devla Nagli to Rithat to Khanpur Ghati), hills near Firozpur Jhirka (crossings near
Kheri Kalan, Regarh, Bhakro Ji, Bas Burja),
Naugaon, Dohli, near Alwar and Sariska (Ghata-Chirawanda-Kalakha), Nangal Todiyal, Bandikui, Dausa, Chhateda, etc. == Inter-connectivity ==