Nagpur: The ambitious Bharat Mala project, announced by the central government earlier this week, has a lot in store for Maharashtra. Of the 44 economic corridors to be built across the country, 12 will pass through the state, giving a major boost to inter-state connectivity.
Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis tweeted: “Great News! Maharashtra to gain a lot from Bharat Mala project. Twelve of 44 corridors to pass through Maharashtra.”
The Union cabinet on Tuesday passed the plan to construct 83,677 km of roads, highways, green-field expressways and bridges in phases. These will be built over the next five years at a cost of Rs 7 lakh crore in an effort to boost the economy and generate more jobs.
Under the first phase, to be completed by 2022, 34,800 km of highways will be built.
The 12 corridors that will pass through the state account for 8,501-km-long stretches of highways and include Mumbai-Kolkata, Mumbai-Kanyakumari, Agra-Mumbai, Pune-Vijaywada, Surat-Nagpur, Solapur-Nagpur and Hyderabad-Aurangabad, among others.
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Apart from this, Maharashtra will also benefit from three ring roads planned in Pune, Dhule and Nagpur, of the 28 ring roads planned across the country. A ring road is a road or a series of connected roads encircling a town or city.
“We have already attended a series of meetings for the project. The work of allotment to agencies should start soon,” said a senior official from Maharashtra government, requesting anonymity.
The plan also includes inter-connecting roads and feeder roads as well as enhancing port connectivity across 448km in the state.
Besides these, logistics parks have also been planned in cities such as Mumbai, Pune and Nagpur. Logistics park are expected to improve efficiency and reduce logistics costs by supporting warehousing, freight movement and other services such as customs clearances.
However, transport expert Sulakshana Mahajan said the government should be looking at strengthening public transport instead of investing on highways again. “The Mumbai-Nagpur corridor is facing so many issues, including land acquisition. The concept of economic corridors is a thing of the past, especially because of well-established flight and rail services.”
