Considering the inconvenience to commuters currently travelling from Nagpur to Pune, the 701 km Nagpur-Mumbai Samruddhi Mahamarg will be connected to the newly proposed 268 km Pune-Ahmednagar-Aurangabad Access Control Green Expressway near Aurangabad. This road will be constructed with a completely new alignment by NHAI, announced the union minister of road transport and highways Mr Nitin Gadkari on Sunday.
‘’This will make it possible to travel from Pune to Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar (Aurangabad) in two and half hours and from Nagpur to Chatrapati Sambhajinagar (Aurangabad) in five and half hours through Samruddhi Mahamarg,’’ he added.
Mr Gadkari’s announcement came days after Chief Minister Eknath Shinde disclosed that the first phase of 520 km Nagpur to Shirdi of the Samruddhi Mahamarg will be commissioned in November. The state government proposes to inaugurate the first phase by Prime Minister Mr Narendra Modi as it awaits confirmation of his availability from his office.
‘’Samruddhi Expressway connecting Nagpur-Mumbai will be commissioned soon from Nagpur to Shirdi. The distance from Nagpur to Aurangabad is 410 Km and further Samruddhi will be connected to the Aurangabad-Pune expressway with a distance of 268 Km. Thus, a total length of 678 Km from Nagpur to Pune can be covered in 8 hours,’’ said Mr Gadkari.
The Ministry hopes that the proposed new expressway will ease traffic as road connectivity through the existing Pune – Ahmednagar - Aurangabad Highway is overloaded with local and Industrial traffic. The proposed alignment provides connectivity from South India (Goa, Bangalore and other districts of Karnataka via the Pune - Bangalore Expressway) to Pune, Aurangabad, Nagpur and further to Madhya Pradesh and Northern India.
‘’The proposed alignment has a length of 268 km including the 39 km length of the proposed ring road around Pune City. Also, it has a 20 km length Spur (12 km to Ranjangaon & 8 km to Bidkin - Shendra),’’ said Mr Gadkari. He further added that it will be a six-lane expressway expandable to 8 lanes with a designed speed of 120 kmph.
‘’It will start from the proposed Pune Ring Road intersection with Pune Bangalore Expressway and connect Pune Bangalore Expressway to Nagpur Mumbai Samruddhi Expressway at Aurangabad, which further provides connectivity to Nagpur. It will also connect Pune Ring Road to Major Highways in the region,’ said Mr Gadkari adding that ‘’It is the most Economic and Fast Freight Corridor with 120 kmph speed between Pune to Aurangabad which will be passing through the undeveloped area which will boost economic development in said area.’’
