Snapshot
Gadkari announced plan to build Aurangabad – Pune expressway which would reduce travel time to just one hour from the current five hours.
With no turns, the new expressway would allow vehicles to travel at a speed of 140 kmph.
Maharashtra, which hosts Mumbai – Pune expressway and soon hosts the longest Mumbai – Nagpur expressway, may soon become home to another expressway.
Union Road Transport and Highways Minister Nitin Gadkari announced a plan to build an expressway connecting Pune and Aurangabad.
Estimated to cost Rs 10,000 crore, the Aurangabad – Pune expressway would reduce travel time between two industrial cities to just 1.1 hours from the current four to five hours.
“The distance between Aurangabad and Pune is around 225 km. We will build an access-controlled expressway between these two cities where there will be no turns and the vehicles could move at a speed of up to 140 km per hour,” Gadkari said.
“This will reduce the travel time between the two cities to 1.15 hours (as against four to five hours currently). This new alignment will go from Paithan and Ahmednagar regions,” he added.
Gadkari made this announcement on Sunday (24 April) after inaugurating seven National Highway Projects worth Rs 5,569 crore.
Speaking on occasion, the minister said that the construction of roads in the region would solve water issues besides connectivity issues as many ponds will be built on the lines of the Buldhana pattern.
Minister said that soil and stones extracted for use in road construction would create small ponds and lakes.
“The soil extracted from the ponds created in Adgaon-Gandheli, Valmi and Nakshatrawadi areas, Teesgaon and Sajapur village areas has got double benefit. Deepening has made it possible to create ponds in each area,” Gadkari said.
“This will help in reducing the water crisis by increasing the ground water level. The construction of such ponds in the district has increased the water capacity to 14 lakh cubic meters till date,” he added.