Nagpur/Mumbai: A lot of buzz have been created around the ambitious super highway between Nagpur and Mumbai, but the latest one will set you thrilled and excited we bet! There will be no phases but start to finish one shot construction and wait…there will be no toll plazas too, all through this 800 km express highway. Taking lessons from the jams at toll plazas on the Mumbai-Pune Expressway, MSRDC officials said that the Mumbai-Nagpur expressway will not have toll plazas on it; instead, all toll booths will be at the entry and exit points of the expressway.
A pre-feasibility study has suggested that the 800–km expressway should be a green-field project and highways and cities will be connected through dedicated roads. Maharashtra State Road Development Corporation (MSRDC) officials say that the expressway will now have eight lanes with two service roads.
“Earlier, it was proposed that in Phase-I, the existing four lanes would be widened and then in Phase-II, an additional two lanes would be added. But now, since it’s a green-field project, we will go for a one-shot construction with eight lanes. We will have dedicated roads connecting cities, towns and major highways,” said a senior MSRDC official. Before the pre-feasibility study, it was said that it will pass through Ghoti, Aurangabad, Amravati, etc.
Officials added that the government has a majority of the land around the probable alignment. “Mostly, we have land available there, but we will also be doing land-pooling and pass on the benefits to farmers. The other funds will be used for the maintenance of the expressway, along with the toll,” said an official.
The state-of-the-art expressway is estimated to cost a whopping Rs 30,000 crore and will reduce the travel time between the two cities to just 10 hours.
MSRDC officials added that the “Communications Super Expressway” will be implemented on a cash-contract and not on a public-private partnership (PPP) model. “It’s a massive project to be implemented on a PPP basis. It will be done as a cash-contract. We have had preliminary discussions with Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) to fund the project,” said Radheshyam Mopalwar, the vice-chairman and managing director of MSRDC.
Mopalwar added, “Out of the 800 km, around 500 km of the expressway would go through backward areas of Maharashtra. We also plan to have IT parks wherever possible. Smart cities will be planned along with educational hubs. All these things would benefit these areas immensely. The final alignment of the project will be finalised in three months. The expressway would also have a super-optic fibre network, CCTV cameras and facilities such as WiFi.”
