The much-awaited Samruddhi Mahamarg -- the biggest Expressway project of India -- is going to be open to traffic partially from August 15, coinciding with the country's 75 years of Independence.
The Samruddhi Corridor will connect Mumbai, the financial capital of India, to Nagpur, the nerve centre of Vidarbha region.
The Hindu Hrudaysamrat Balasaheb Thackeray Maharashtra Samruddhi Mahamarg -- as it is formally known -- is one of the most ambitious road projects ever undertaken in Maharashtra and India.
The first phase of the project will connect Nagpur to the temple town of Shirdi.
Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde and Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis have been involved in the execution of the project since the beginning.
The 701 km Nagpur-Mumbai Super Communication Expressway was launched when Fadnavis headed the previous BJP-Shiv Sena government and Shinde was the Minister for Public Works (Public Undertaking), between October 2017 and October 2019.
In November, when the Maha Vikas Aghadi government was in power between November, 2019 and June, 2022, Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray oversaw the project while Shinde was in-charge of execution as he retained the same ministry.
It was also during this period that the Expressway was named after Balasaheb Thackeray.
With the Shinde-Fadnavis government now in the state, they are speeding up the pending work and going ahead with the commissioning of the first phase.
The Expressway passes through ten districts -- Nagpur, Wardha, Amravati, Washim, Buldhana, Aurangabad, Jalna, Ahmednagar, Nashik and Thane.
It will connect Nagpur to Mumbai and have direct connectivity with the country’s largest container port JNPT. This will enhance EXIM trade in the state.
Inter-connecting highways and feeder roads would be constructed to connect all important cities and tourist places along this route.
This will connect another 14 districts -- Chandrapur, Bhandara, Gondia, Gadchiroli, Yavatmal, Akola, Hingoli, Parbhani, Nanded, Beed, Dhule, Jalgaon, Palghar and Raigad.
In this manner, a total of 24 districts in Maharashtra will be connected via this Expressway.
Major tourist destinations in the state will also be connected to the Expressway.
It will connect several industrial areas, the Delhi-Mumbai Industrial Corridor (DMIC) , the Western Dedicated Freight Corridor (WDFC), and the dry ports of Wardha and Jalna.
The Expressway, having a total width of 120m with a central median of 22.5 m, will follow the international standards of design.
In case, there is a need to increase lanes on either side, a provision has been made in the center of the expressway. It will have service roads on both sides that will connect through the underpasses.
It will have around 50 plus flyovers, 24 plus interchanges, more than five tunnels, 400 plus vehicular and 300 plus pedestrian underpasses provided at strategic locations. It will have multiple underpasses and overpasses for wild animals.
The speed limit will be 150 km which will bring Nagpur and Mumbai within eight hours reach. The travel time from Mumbai to Aurangabad will be four hours and from Aurangabad to Nagpur, another four hours.
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