A new 9-km stretch connecting the DND Flyway to Jaitpur on the Delhi-Mumbai Expressway has opened for trial runs, and for Noida-Faridabad commuters, the single biggest gain here is what it lets you skip – the Kalindi Kunj choke point. That one stretch is responsible for more lost commute time than almost any other bottleneck on this corridor, and this link routes around it entirely. We drove the stretch ourselves this week, and here’s what it actually changes for Noida and Greater Noida residents.

Update, September 2026: NHAI briefly shut this lane the day after its first trial opening for pending reflector, signage and road-marking work, then reopened it after roughly 10 days once that work was completed. The trial is now extended to September 20, with a formal inauguration by the Prime Minister expected once it’s confirmed successful. Details below.

What Exactly Has Opened

The National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) has opened this 9-km link, nearly 8.5 km of it elevated, connecting the DND Flyway with Jaitpur on the Delhi-Mumbai Expressway (August 21, 2026). It’s a trial opening, not a formal commissioning, which matters for a few practical reasons we’ll get to below. But functionally, this section completes Delhi’s direct connection to the country’s longest access-controlled expressway. With this, around 50 km of the full 59-km Delhi link, running from DND all the way to the Delhi-Mumbai Expressway’s junction with the Kundli-Manesar-Palwal (KMP) Expressway, is now open in phases.

For anyone in Noida who’s used to treating the Delhi-Mumbai Expressway as something you access from Sohna or further south, this changes the geography. You now have a far more direct route from the DND side straight onto it.

We Drove It. Here’s What It’s Actually Like

We took this stretch ourselves to see if the “20 minutes to Faridabad” claim holds up in practice. On a reasonably clear run, it does feel like a genuine shortcut rather than a paper promise. The elevated section keeps you above the usual Kalindi Kunj–Ashram congestion instead of feeding into it, which is the entire point. Signage on a trial stretch is still catching up. So if you’re driving it for the first time, don’t expect it to be as clearly marked as an already-commissioned highway. But the road surface and merge points felt ready for regular traffic, not just test runs.

Why This Matters If You Live in Noida

Until now, reaching the Delhi-Mumbai Expressway from Noida or east Delhi usually meant routing through Ashram, Kalindi Kunj and the Badarpur border. That is a stretch that regularly runs upward of 30 minutes even before you’ve actually started your onward journey toward Faridabad, Ballabhgarh or Sohna.

The Kalindi Kunj bottleneck specifically is the part daily commuters dread most, and it’s exactly what this elevated link is designed to bypass. NHAI’s own estimate puts the DND-to-Faridabad run at roughly 20 minutes on the new link, which is the kind of time saving that actually changes whether a weekend trip to Sohna or a business run toward Jaipur feels worth doing on a weekday evening.

It’s also a meaningful pressure valve for two of the most congested corridors in the region — Ring Road and Mathura Road. Both of these are expected to see a chunk of Faridabad-bound traffic peel off onto this new corridor instead.

Trial Period: What You Need to Know Before You Drive It

A few practical points if you’re planning to use this stretch in the coming weeks:

• No toll during the trial: NHAI isn’t charging toll on this stretch yet, since it’s officially still under trial.
• It was briefly shut and reopened: the lane connecting Jaitpur Pushta Road to DND Maharani Bagh was closed the day after its first trial opening, since reflectors, direction signs and road markings weren’t finished. NHAI reopened it roughly 10 days later, once that work was completed. So if you’d heard mixed reports about whether it’s open, that’s why.
• Trial now runs till September 20: NHAI is reviewing daily vehicular movement and road safety on the stretch through that date, and will address any shortcomings before making a final call on regular traffic.
• A formal inauguration is planned: reports indicate Prime Minister Narendra Modi is expected to formally inaugurate the stretch once the trial is confirmed successful, though a date hasn’t been announced yet.
• Expect monitoring, not stability: caution and low-speed signs are up along the route, and signage, lane markings or access points could still shift before the stretch is formally commissioned.

The Bigger Picture: Delhi-Mumbai Expressway and Noida

This opening didn’t happen in isolation. The Delhi link to the expressway has been rolling out in phases, and the Jaitpur-KMP interchange section was already live before this stretch connected it back to DND. Originally, the Delhi-Mumbai Expressway was conceived as a Sohna-to-JNPT corridor; the extension toward DND, first proposed back in 2018, was specifically meant to give Delhi (and by extension, NCR) a direct starting point on the expressway rather than relying on congested city roads to reach it.

There’s also a more direct Noida connection in the pipeline. The Centre is working on linking the Delhi-Mumbai Expressway straight to Noida International Airport. An approved 11-km elevated section will connect Faridabad to the airport at an estimated cost of Rs 3,631 crore. Combined with the government’s target of making the expressway fully operational up to Vadodara by December, this DND-Jaitpur link is one piece of a broader push to give the region faster, less congested long-distance access. Not just a one-off flyover opening.

What We’re Watching Next

For Noida residents specifically, the two developments to track are the Noida Airport-Expressway connection (still in the approval-to-construction pipeline) and how quickly this DND-Jaitpur stretch moves from “trial” to “tolled and commissioned.” Once tolling kicks in, the time-saved calculation will look a little different. So if you’re planning regular Faridabad or Sohna-bound trips, it’s worth using the free trial window while it lasts.

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