Infrastructure★ Must Know

Union Cabinet approves ₹14,115 crore for Delhi tunnel and Kanpur-Kabrai highway

By TestNeeti Editorial TeamPublished Thursday, 2 July 2026 2 min readSource: GKTodayArticle 2 of 21

On 1 July 2026, the Union Cabinet approved two highway infrastructure projects with a combined cost of ₹14,114.81 crore. The first is an 8.1-km six-lane road tunnel on NH-148AE in Delhi, connecting the Dwarka Expressway with Nelson Mandela Marg in Vasant Kunj, costing ₹6,969.67 crore under the Hybrid Annuity Mode (HAM), with a completion period of about five years. It includes a 3.14-km twin-tube section beneath the Southern Ridge Forest, built using Tunnel Boring Machine technology. The second is the 117.7-km Kanpur-Kabrai Greenfield Highway in Uttar Pradesh, a four- or six-lane access-controlled highway costing ₹7,145.14 crore, part of the Bhopal-Kanpur Economic Corridor, to be built by the National Highways Authority of India under the Build-Operate-Transfer toll model.

Key Facts & Details

9 points

1
The Union Cabinet on 1 July 2026 approved two highway projects worth a combined ₹14,114.81 crore.
2
An 8.1-km six-lane road tunnel on NH-148AE will connect the Dwarka Expressway with Nelson Mandela Marg in Delhi at a cost of ₹6,969.67 crore under the Hybrid Annuity Mode.
3
The tunnel includes a 3.14-km twin-tube section beneath the Southern Ridge Forest, built using Tunnel Boring Machine technology.
4
The 117.7-km Kanpur-Kabrai Greenfield Highway in Uttar Pradesh will cost ₹7,145.14 crore and forms part of the Bhopal-Kanpur Economic Corridor.
5
The Kanpur-Kabrai highway will be built by the National Highways Authority of India under the Build-Operate-Transfer toll model.
6
The Kanpur-Kabrai highway will cut travel time between Kanpur and Kabrai from about three and a half hours to one and a half hours.

Deep Dive

+
The Delhi tunnel is expected to generate about 7.54 lakh person-days of direct and 9.80 lakh person-days of indirect employment.
+
The Kanpur-Kabrai highway is expected to generate nearly 1.2 crore person-days of direct and indirect employment.
+
The Delhi tunnel is linked with traffic movement from Gurugram, Dwarka and Indira Gandhi International Airport.

Exam Focus

Examiners may ask the total outlay (₹14,114.81 crore), the highway model (HAM for the tunnel, BOT for the highway), or which economic corridor the Kanpur-Kabrai highway is part of.

Exam Relevance & Angle

The ₹14,115 crore approval boosts urban and inter-state connectivity, easing Delhi's traffic congestion and strengthening the Bhopal-Kanpur Economic Corridor in Uttar Pradesh. It illustrates public-private financing models like HAM and BOT, and is expected to generate large-scale employment measured in lakhs of person-days.

Target Exams

UPSC CSESSC CGLRRB NTPCState PCSSBI POIBPS PO

Background & Context

India develops national highways through models such as Hybrid Annuity Mode (HAM), where the government funds a share upfront and pays the rest as annuities, and Build-Operate-Transfer (BOT), where a concessionaire builds and recovers cost via tolls before transferring the asset. The National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) executes major road projects. Tunnel Boring Machines enable underground construction with minimal surface disruption, useful under eco-sensitive zones like Delhi's Ridge. Such projects are aligned with the PM GatiShakti National Master Plan, India's integrated infrastructure planning framework.