Maharashtra CM Devendra Fadnavis has unveiled a detailed plan for the Mumbai-Nagpur Super Communication Expressway, a 706-km link that seeks to connect 24 districts and improve access from rural communities in the east to commercial hubs in the west.
Mumbai – Nagpur Expressway :-
The total length of this highway is 700 km from Nagpur to Mumbai, excluding the portions of NH 7 and NH 3 it covers at Nagpur-Butibori and Ghoti-Kalyan-Mumbai sectors respectively. This highway also covers the part portions of the Maharashtra State Highways at certain areas, which are now being rebuilt with National Highway Standards.
This highway roughly covers the regions in Maharashtra as,
- Vidarbha: 400 km,
- Marathwada: 160 km and
- Rest of Maharashtra : 140 km.
Nagpur–Aurangabad–Mumbai express highway is a Maharashtra State Highway, as its area lies in the state of Maharashtra only, but built on the National Express Highway basis.
- Express Highway, based on the govt approval and the formal announcement by state govt authorities, this highway is a project connecting two major cities Nagpur & Aurangabad in Maharashtra to the capital city of Mumbai via the same link-route and in less than the distance covered by the NH 6.
Super Communication Expressway :-
The new road theoretically saves 65 km distance between the two cities and the travel time of nearly one-and-half hours. Though said so, ironically, if developed with 4 lane basis, as declared earlier by the State Public Works Dept, this highway can save more than 8 hrs of time between Nagpur and Mumbai, as compared toNH 6.
- The highway, which will have at least three lanes on each side, will reduce travel time between the two cities from 12-16 hours.
- The Rs 46,000-crore project, formally called ‘Maharashtra Prosperity Corridor’, also involves construction of agricultural centres, warehouses and other facilities that the state hopes will lead to creation of thousands of new jobs. The facilities will be set up near several nodes planned on the route.
- According to the plan, the construction will begin in January next year and end in October 2019, a schedule officials may struggle to meet because of land disputes that generally plague major road projects. Maharashtra State Road Development Corporation (MSRDC) is the implementing agency for the project.
- The super expressway, which will pass through 10 districts, will need 8,520 hectares of land, while amenities planned along the stretch will require 1,500 hectares. Node development will require 10,800 hectares.
- This is the first time Maharashtra will obtain space through land pooling. In such a system, farmers and plot owners transfer land ownership rights to the government or a single agency, which develops the space by building roads and other infrastructure? It then returns a small portion to the owners, who benefit from the higher market value of developed land.
