Officially called the Hindu Hrudaysamrat Balasaheb Thackeray Maharashtra Samruddhi Mahamarg, the 701-kilometer Mumbai-Nagpur Expressway is expected to be completely operational by the end of September.
The project’s implementing agency states that the expressway’s last 76 km, which runs from Igatpuri in the Nashik district to Aamne in the Thane district, should be finished and provide a smooth means of transportation between Mumbai and Nagpur.
The Maharashtra State Road Development Corporation’s (MSRDC) chairman and managing director, Anilkumar Gaikwad, told PTI that the last phase’s construction is going smoothly.
A 3-kilometre section is still under development close to Khardi town. This final part of the project, which required cutting through 16 deep valleys and five hillocks, was deemed by Gaikwad to be the most difficult. There were sixteen viaducts and five tunnels constructed to overcome these topographical challenges.
The twin viaducts of the west-end corridor are now under construction at Vashala, which is around 7 km from the Khardi railway station in the Thane district. They should be finished by the end of November. Until then, four lanes on the east-end viaduct will be used to control traffic on a 3-kilometer section of the highway.
Gaikwad observed that erecting the viaducts was a major problem, especially at Vashala where the tallest point is 84 meters (equivalent to a 28-story structure). The viaducts have been successfully finished despite these challenges.
Sixty-five kilometres of the expressway, which is part of the Mumbai-Ahmedabad-Delhi Expressway, have already been opened to traffic. The expressway links to the Mumbai-Nashik Highway near Aamne by the JNPT spur. With the completion of this Rs 55,000-crore project, the 18-hour journey time between Mumbai and Nagpur would be drastically shortened to only eight hours.
After the Mumbai-Pune Expressway, the Samruddhi Mahamarg is Maharashtra’s second major expressway project, having been launched in 2015. Prime Minister Narendra Modi laid the foundation stone in December 2018 after land acquisition started in July 2017. 2019 saw the formal start of construction.
