The 44-km-long Sinnar-Shirdi stretch of the Mumbai-Nagpur Samruddhi Mahamarg is likely to be opened by March-end, as reported in Economic Times.
Officially named ‘Hindu Hrudaysamrat Balasaheb Thackeray Maharashtra Samruddhi Mahamarg’, the expressway is currently operational between Nagpur and Shirdi.
“The Sinnar-Shirdi stretch is likely to be opened by March-end. Barring a small section near Shirdi, the rest of the 44km stretch is ready,” said officials of Maharashtra State Road Development Corporation (MSRDC), adding that the construction of this 44 km section costs around Rs 2,000 crore.
Sinnar-Shirdi Stretch
The Sinnar-Shirdi stretch of the greenfield expressway runs parallel to the existing Sinnar-Shirdi national highway and is 11 km shorter than the existing highway which is more than 55 km long.
This six-lane access-controlled expressway is expected to reduce the travel time between Sinnar and Shirdi as well as Sinnar and Nagpur.
Once this section becomes operational, the travel time between Sinnar and Shirdi is expected to decrease from the current 50 minutes, using the existing Sinnar-Shirdi national highway, to around 30 minutes.
Similarly, the travel time between Sinnar and Nagpur is likely to drop from the current nine hours to six hours.
The opening of Sinnar stretch will also boost Nashik’s economic growth and benefit more than 1,000 industrial units based in the Sinnar industrial area.
At a distance of 30 km from Nashik, Sinnar is a town in Nashik district in Maharashtra. Sinnar is mainly famous for Sri Gondeshwar Temple and Gargoti Museum.
Samruddhi Corridor
The 701-km access-controlled expressway, once completed, will reduce the travel time between Nagpur and Mumbai from 16 hours to eight hours.
At present, commuters use NH 3 (Mumbai-Dhule) and NH 6 (Dhule-Nagpur) to reach Nagpur covering 839-km distance which takes at least 17 hours.
The expressway connects 10 districts of the state, namely, Nagpur, Wardha, Amravati, Washim, Buldhana, Jalna, Aurangabad, Nashik, Ahmednagar and Thane.
The first phase connecting Nagpur to the temple town of Shirdi in Ahmednagar district covering a distance of 520 km was inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on 11 December last year.
The remaining 181-km stretch under Phase-II between Shirdi and Mumbai, will end in Thane’s Vadpe area in the Bhiwandi district, and will be ready by 2024.
On Friday, Chief Minister Eknath Shinde informed the state assembly that Phase-II of the project would be completed soon.
The project is the brainchild of Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis and was conceptualised when he was the chief minister in 2015.