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Union Road Transport and Highways Minister Nitin Gadkari has said that the Central government is planning green express highways between Mumbai and Bengaluru that would cut down the travel time to five hours. Similarly, such highways would shorten the travel time between Pune and Bengaluru to 3.5-4 hours. The distance between Bengaluru and Mumbai is 981.4 km and currently, the road travel takes around 16-17 hours. The Centre is working on 27 Green Express Highways to connect big cities, including Bengaluru, Mumbai and Chennai, with environment-friendly, pollution-controlled roads, the minister said. We are planning a Green Express Highway between Mumbai and Bengaluru. It will be a five-hour journey between Mumbai-Pune and Pune-Bengaluru. The Mumbai-Pune Expressway will take a turn from near the Ring Road of Pune and join the highway towards Bengaluru,� Union Road Transport and Highways Minister Nitin Gadkari said in a virtual address at the Association of National Exchanges Members of India (ANMI)’s 12th International Convention, which was held in Mumbai. “By end of this year, there will be highways connecting Delhi-Dehradun in two hours, Delhi-Haridwar in two hours, Delhi-Jaipur in two hours, Delhi-Chandigarh in two and a half hours, Delhi-Amritsar in four, Delhi-Srinagar in eight, Delhi-Katra in six, Delhi-Mumbai in 10, Chennai-Bengaluru in two and Lucknow-Kanpur in half an hour,� he said. Gadkari said Green Highway projects connecting Gorakhpur-Siliguri and Varanasi-Kolkata are also on the cards. After a period of 12-13 years, the investments will be fully recovered from those state highways along with interest and land acquisition costs. He claimed that investments in the infrastructure sector will be risk-free and yield good returns, and called for cooperation in investment for infrastructure. “The financial markets need to come up with innovative models to fund India’s infrastructure growth. We are inviting investments in the PPP model,� he said. See also: Samruddhi Mahamarg's longest tunnel in Maharashtra is nearing completion Pune authorities ordered to repair 400 km of poor roads