Infra Watch: Big Projects Launched In 2024 And What To Expect In 2025

India continued to build physical infrastructure at a robust phase in 2024, with mega projects like the Atal Setu in Mumbai, and tunnels and railway lines in Jammu and Kashmir, and Arunachal Pradesh opening for public use.

The government has committed Rs 11 lakh crore in capital expenditure this fiscal year. These developments have been accelerated by the government's programmatic interventions, such as creation of the National Infrastructure Pipeline of project worth Rs 111 lakh crore, National Monetization Pipeline of projects worth Rs 6 lakh crore and PM GatiShakti National Master Plan.

Here are the most significant infrastructure projects that opened in 2024 and the ones lined up for next year.

The Atal Setu, India's longest sea bridge and also known as the Mumbai Trans Harbour Link, opened in January. Connecting Mumbai with Navi Mumbai, this six-lane, 21.8-kilometre bridge was built at a cost of Rs 21,200 crore. It significantly reduces travel time between Navi Mumbai and South Mumbai, from nearly two hours to just 20–25 minutes.

The Rs 13,000-crore Mumbai coastal road project aims to provide an alternative north-south trunk route, enhancing mobility. The first phase, spanning 10.5 kilometres and connecting Marine Drive to Worli also includes India's first undersea tunnel.

Phase 2 will extend from the Bandra end of the Bandra-Worli Sea Link to Kandivali, with plans to expand further north to Dahisar and Bhayander. The road is expected to reduce travel time between south Mumbai and Kandivali from about two hours to just 40 minutes.

In 2024, India's metro networks rapidly expanded with new lines, extensions, and station openings in cities such as Bengaluru, Kolkata, Mumbai, Pune, and Nagpur.

Notable developments included the underwater metro under the Hooghly river to connect Howrah and Kolkata, the extension of Bengaluru's Green Line from Nagasandra to Madavara and the Bandra-Kurla Complex to Aarey stretch of Mumbai Metro Line 3.

The final extension of Pune Metro phase one was completed, as well as Nagpur's Indora Square Metro Station.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated the Sela Tunnel project in Itanagar in March. The world's longest bi-lane tunnel at 13,000 feet has been constructed by the Border Roads Organisation on the road connecting Tezpur, Assam, to Tawang in the West Kameng district of Arunachal Pradesh.

Built at a total cost of Rs 825 crore, the tunnel will provide all-weather connectivity to Tawang across Sela Pass on the Balipara-Chariduar-Tawang Road, boosting the preparedness of the armed forces.

The railway line aims to connect Baramulla in North Kashmir to Udhampur in Jammu. It is a stretch of the ambitious Udhampur-Srinagar-Baramulla Rail Link project for enhancing connectivity to the Kashmir Valley.

The 48-km line was inaugurated by Modi in February. India's longest transportation tunnel T-50 (12.77 Km) lies in this portion between Khari-Sumber.

The Bengaluru-Chennai Expressway is a 260-km project costing over Rs 17,930 crore that will pass through Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu to connect the two metros.

The highway will feature eight lanes for 240 km, with a 22-km elevated stretch. Once completed, the expressway will reduce travel time between Bengaluru and Chennai to just three hours. The project is slated for inauguration by next August, as per reports.

The Noida international airport, which completed its first landing test earlier in December, is expected to begin operations by mid-2025. In the first phase, the airport will have one runway and one terminal, with a capacity to handle 1.2 crore passengers annually. Once all the four phases are completed, the airport's total capacity will rise to 7 crore passengers per year.

The Navi Mumbai International Airport, developed by the Adani Group, will be operational by March 2025, Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde said in October, after the first flight touched down at the facility.

NMIAL will be India's largest airport with 90 million passenger capacity by 2032, and it will have two runways with four terminals. The airport will be multi-modal with connectivity with Metro, rail and road.

The 1,506 km-long Western Dedicated Freight Corridor, which connects Maharashtra with northern India, will be completed by December 2025. The corridor has been completed in all states except Maharashtra, with the Vaitarna-JNPT section being the last unfinished leg of the project.

The corridor is being built by Dedicated Freight Corridor Corp. as an electrified railway network with double-line operation. The Western DFC is exclusively for transporting freight at higher speeds with increased load carrying capacity. 

It will provide a fillip to India's external trade, by allowing cheaper transport of goods from northern states to overseas markets via the Mumbai port.