Maharashtra State Road Development Corporation (MSRDC) plans to open the remaining portion of Samruddhi Mahamarg in November.
Samruddhi Mahamarg, a highway connecting Nagpur to Mumbai is 701 km long and is currently open from Nagpur to Igatpuri city.
The last 76 km stretch under construction between Igatpuri and Amane village in Thane, which will connect to Mumbai, will partially open by August.
“We have completed nearly 90 percent of the work, with the 1.8 km Khardi bridge on the Kasara ghat section posing the main challenge. The 8-km-long tunnel is complete. While the expressway is six lanes, it will temporarily narrow to four lanes at the Khardi bridge for the time being,” a senior MSRDC official told the Free Press Journal.
“The entire expressway has three lanes on each side. The traffic to Mumbai will start by August and only the bridge stretch will have a four-lane road with two lanes being operational in either direction. This would be a temporary arrangement and we have plans to open the remaining lanes of the bridge for traffic by November, thereby making operational the entire expressway a six-lane project,” the official added.
This 701 km long expressway, which connects winter capital Nagpur from Thane district to financial hub Mumbai, is formally called the Hindu Hriday Samrat Balasaheb Thackeray Maharashtra Samruddhi Mahamarg.
Currently, it is the longest highway in the country; It crosses 10 major districts and indirectly connects 14 other districts, connecting the eastern part of Maharashtra with the western part, which is economically important.
The expressway, connecting important economic hubs including Jawaharlal Nehru Port in Mumbai, the country’s largest container port, and the upcoming international airport in Navi Mumbai is called the “Samruddhi Mahamarg”.
The Maharashtra government has proposed to build additional connectors or access-controlled expressways to connect major districts to the Samruddhi Mahamarg.
MSRDC has started construction of the Jalna-Nanded Expressway, which is 179.85 km long. Not only this, the agency has issued two additional bids for the construction of Nagpur-Gondia and Nagpur-Chandrapur Expressways.
These three expressways will be connected to the Mumbai-Nagpur Samruddhi Mahamarg, which will increase road travel connectivity between Mumbai and remote areas of the state.
