Maharashtra: Mumbai-Nagpur Samruddhi Mahamarg To Be Inaugurated In January

Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, announced on Saturday (12 November) that, Samruddhi Expressway will be inaugurated in January.

Previously, Samruddhi was slated to open in November.

Fadnavis was speaking during the inauguration of the four-laned stretch of the National Highway 353-D between Nagpur and Umred.

The 701-km-long Samruddhi Expressway will connect 10 districts (Nagpur, Wardha, Amravati, Washim, Buldhana, Jalna, Aurangabad, Nashik, Ahmednagar and Thane), 26 talukas, and 392 villages of the state. 

When fully operational, the expressway will reduce the travel time between Nagpur and Mumbai by half, from 16 to eight hours.

“We have decided to build a big network of roads in the state. It would act as an anchor for development. The Samruddhi will be expanded till Gondia and Gadchiroli. Another such expressway is proposed from Nagpur to Goa that would pass from Marathwada, Solapur and Kolhapur,” said Fadnavis, reports Economic Times. 

The greenfield project was first announced in 2015 by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-Shiv Sena coalition government.

The land acquisition began in July 2017, Prime Minister Modi laid the foundation stone in December 2018, and construction work started in January 2019.

The project is being led by the state infrastructure arm Maharashtra State Road Development Corporation (MSRDC) and is being developed under the Engineering, Procurement and Construction (EPC) model.

For the project, the MSRDC has raised debt worth Rs 28,000 crore.

The construction work of the 701-km-long Mumbai-Nagpur Expressway was divided into 16 packages, with work awarded to 13 contractors, including Afcons Infrastructure, Larsen & Toubro (L&T) and Reliance Infrastructure.

The total cost of the expressway project, including land acquisition and engineering, is estimated to be Rs 55,332 crore.

The Mumbai-Nagpur Samruddhi Expressway will change the face of Vidarbha with the development it will herald, by becoming an economic corridor of the country, said Fadnavis. 

The MSRDC has plans to develop 19 new towns along the expressway, of which it has prepared a development plan for eight. Out of these eight new towns, land acquisition for six will be completed by June next year. 

Every township developed under the initiative of Krushi Samruddhi Nagar is envisaged to be built in a land area of approximately 1000-1500 hectares. 

The new towns shall serve as the utility economic nodes for the food processing industry, integrated logistics, domestic food markets, education centres, skill development institutes, healthcare facilities, and commercial and residential housing.

The Maharashtra government has also notified the maximum speed limit for vehicles traversing the Samruddhi Expressway.

The government has said vehicles can ply at 100 to 120 km per hour on the expressway. They have also listed speed limitations according to the type of vehicle.

Two-wheelers, auto rickshaws and quadricycles would not be allowed on the highway.