Nagpur: Eknath Shinde Government is set to give a big gift to the people of Maharashtra on Diwali. Prime Minister Narendra Modi will inaugurate the Nagpur-Mumbai Samruddhi Mahamarg next month. In the last week of October, the Prime Minister will visit Nagpur for the inauguration of the Expressway. The first phase of this Nagpur-Mumbai Expressway has been completed.
The Nagpur-Mumbai Expressway is 701 km long and a 6 lane highway. It can be expanded up to 8 lanes if needed. It has been designed for a top speed of 150 kmph. However, toll tax will also have to be paid for running the vehicle on this Expressway at this speed. For this, 26 toll tax posts have been set up.
The estimated cost of the Expressway has been estimated at Rs 55,000 crore. It is also officially known as Balasaheb Thackeray Samruddhi Mahamarg. The first phase of the Expressway, from Nagpur to Shirdi, is ready.
The travel time from Mumbai to Nagpur by this Expressway will be reduced by half. Earlier it used to take 16 hours, now the journey will be completed in 8 hours. There is also a plan to plant 1268 trees along the Mahamarg. The construction of the Expressway was announced in 2015. It has been built keeping in mind the development of Vidarbha, a backward region of Maharashtra. In December 2018, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had laid the foundation stone of the Mumbai-Nagpur Expressway.
This Expressway has been targeted to be completed by December 2022. It is worth noting that the 210 km stretch of this Expressway between Nagpur and Shelu Bazar, Washim district was commissioned in May this year. The 310 km long stretch from Shelu Bazar to Shirdi is now ready to be opened to the public.
This Expressway passes through 10 districts and 390 villages of Maharashtra. The Expressway connects the country’s largest container port (JNPT) in Mumbai with the Multimodal International Hub Airport in Nagpur (MIHAN). It will largely connect the Delhi-Mumbai Industrial Corridor, Bengaluru-Chennai Economic Corridor, Western Dedicated Freight Corridor, Eastern Dedicated Freight Corridor, Chennai-Vizag Economic Corridor and Golden Quadrilateral.
