The Union Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MoRTH) has revised the Chennai–Surat National Highway corridor under the Bharatmala Pariyojana, shortening its route and realigning it to run from Chennai to Nashik instead of Surat. 

This decision was made due to difficulties in land acquisition and delays in securing environmental clearances between Surat and Nashik. Initially planned as a 1,271-km corridor from Surat to Chennai with an estimated cost of Rs 50,000 crore, the expressway will now stretch only 900 km, ending in Nashik. The highway was originally intended to connect Surat, Nashik, Ahmednagar, Solapur, Kalaburagi, Kurnool, Kadapa, and Tirupati. 

The new plan will require the Maharashtra State Road Development Corporation (MSRDC) to build a greenfield expressway to serve the same purpose as the Surat–Nashik stretch. Despite the revision, officials emphasise that the core objective remains unchanged, with the six-lane, access-controlled expressway still expected to enable high-speed travel between Central and Southern India.