Nag-Mum e-way to be ready by Dec 2021

Nagpur: The Nagpur-Mumbai super expressway would be ready by December 2021 and people will be able to travel on the six-lane road from Nagpur to Aurangabad by July 2021, Radheshyam Mopalwar, managing director of Maharashtra State Road Development Corporation (MSRDC), told the media on Wednesday.
Work on the expressway, officially known as Hindu Hridaysamrat Balasaheb Thackeray Samruddhi Mahamarg, is 40% complete, said Mopalwar. “The stretch falling in Vidarbha has been divided into seven packages. The package-wise progress is: I – 50 %, II – 34%, III – 53%, IV – 44%, V – 4%, VI – 47% and VII – 20%. The work on package V was slow and so we asked the contractor to sign an agreement with the contractor of package VI. This has been accomplished and now work is going on in full swing,” he added.
Mopalwar told the media that the project will generate employment of up to five lakh over the next decade. “MSRDC has taken the initiative to provide skill development training to youngsters from the 23,000 families whose land has been acquired for the project. These youngsters will get employment opportunities in the new towns which will be set up along the expressway. According to IDFC, the employment generation potential of the project is 20 lakh jobs but our estimate is 5 lakh only,” he said.
As many as 20 new towns will be set up along the expressway, out of which 10 will be set up in Vidarbha region. Vijay Waghmare, joint MD of MSRDC, said, “MSRDC has adopted an eight-phase programme. This programme includes inception, geo reference mapping, existing land use study, market study and demand assessment, preparing of concept map or visioning wherein the expected development of a particular area over the next decade, its principal occupation and other factors are studied, drafting development plan, preparing final report and submission of final report. MSRDC has completed the first five phases.”
To a query, Mopalwar said that the project had only been 15% affected by the lockdown. On the bullet train, he said that as per the Mumbai-Nagpur bullet train project report, the alignment would be along the railway line. “There will be a greenfield alignment from Jalna to Akola. There is no proposal of laying the track along the Mahamarg,” he added.
The Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government had reduced the loan burden of MSRDC for the project from Rs28,000 crore to Rs25,000 crore by increasing the state government equity. Mopalwar said that the money had not been taken back despite financial crunch.