Commuters battling the daily grind between south Delhi and the airport corridor finally have some good news. The Union Cabinet has approved the construction of an 8.1-km six-lane tunnel connecting the Dwarka Expressway with Nelson Mandela Marg in Vasant Kunj, a project cleared by the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi at an estimated cost of ₹6,969.67 crore.
The project addresses one of the most persistent bottlenecks in the capital. Congestion around Shiv Murti, Mahipalpur, Aerocity and Vasant Kunj has long slowed access to Delhi's Indira Gandhi International (IGI) Airport, and this new corridor is designed to change that. The tunnel will originate at the Shiv Murti Interchange and terminate before the intersection of Nelson Mandela Marg and the Mahipalpur-Chhatarpur Road, effectively stitching together two of NCR's busiest growth corridors.
At the heart of the project is a 3.14-km underground twin-tube tunnel, of which nearly 1.98 km will pass beneath the ecologically sensitive Southern Ridge Forest using Tunnel Boring Machine (TBM) technology. According to the government, constructing the tunnel underground will minimise surface disruption while preserving the forest ecosystem, a detail that has been highlighted by officials as a model for balancing infrastructure growth with environmental conservation. Beyond the tunnel, the plan includes elevated stretches, approach ramps, an elevated road along Nelson Mandela Marg, a flyover connecting Chhatarpur to Mahipalpur, and a dedicated U-turn for traffic heading towards Chhatarpur.
Union Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw explained the strategic intent behind the corridor at a press briefing, noting that the six-lane tunnel connecting Nelson Mandela Marg to Shiv Murti interchange would provide faster connectivity between west and south Delhi as it connects Urban Extension Road (UER)-II and Dwarka Expressway in West Delhi with Vasant Kunj in south Delhi. He added that it will also benefit traffic coming from Gurugram and IGI airport towards south Delhi. In effect, this becomes a missing link that ties together Gurugram's Dwarka Expressway micro-market with south Delhi's established residential belts.
The project will be developed under the Hybrid Annuity Mode (HAM) as part of the National Highways (Original) scheme, and is expected to be completed within five years of commencement. It is also projected to be a significant employment generator: development of each lane-kilometer of a National Highway generates an average of 264 person-days/day of direct employment and 55 person-days/day of indirect employment, which translates into the project generating close to 7.54 lakh person-days of direct employment and 9.80 lakh person-days of indirect employment.
For homebuyers and investors, the timing is significant. The tunnel is expected to integrate with the proposed AIIMS-Mahipalpur Elevated Corridor, which will connect to the Barapullah elevated road, providing seamless connectivity between West, South and East Delhi, as well as Ghaziabad and Noida. This dovetails with the Dwarka Expressway itself, which became fully operational in June 2025 connecting Dwarka in Delhi to Kherki Daula in Gurugram, and has already seen rapid residential and commercial development in recent years, especially in sectors of Gurgaon such as 83, 84, 85, and 86. With this new tunnel now bridging the last stretch into south Delhi, properties along the Dwarka Expressway corridor and DLF's established addresses near Golf Course Road, Golf Course Extension Road and the Privana ecosystem in Sectors 76-77 stand to gain from improved travel times to both the airport and south Delhi's employment hubs. Buyers evaluating homes in this belt would do well to track construction progress, since infrastructure upgrades of this scale typically translate into tangible commute-time and price benefits once operational.
