Union Road Transport Minister Nitin Gadkari recently indicated that the Bengaluru-Chennai greenfield expressway will be inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi before December this year.

While the Karnataka section of the expressway (71 km) is nearly complete, significant work remains in Andhra and Tamil Nadu packages.

Completed sections include Hoskote to Malur (26.4 km) at Rs 2,761.12 crore, Malur to Bangarpet (27.1 km) costing Rs 1,496.30 crore, and Bangarpet to Bethamangala (17.5 km) at Rs 1,047.63 crore.

Responding to any question posed by Rajya Sabha member P.Wilson, Gadkari provided details on the completion status of the four packages of the expressway currently under execution in Tamil Nadu.

Even though Gadkari continues to sound optimistic about the December 2024 inauguration, analysis of the progress on various packages suggests that the realistic time frame for completion of all packages is August 2025 except for one package in Andhra which is likely to be operational in early 2026.