The 701-km Mumbai-Nagpur Expressway will be opened to the public in phases from this year.
In the first phase, the greenfield stretch between Nagpur and Washim district will be opened for public use from May.
Recently, the state’s urban development minister Eknath Shinde announced that the first phase between Nagpur and Shirdi (Ahmednagar) would start in May. Still, only the expressway until Washim is ready for public use.
“In the first phase, they won’t be able to open the expressway till Shirdi due to incomplete work. Instead, the 210-km road from Nagpur to Shelu Bazar in Washim, which is ready to use, is likely to be opened in the first phase as the next 20 km stretch is not in a position to be completed in the next two months owing to technical reasons,” said a senior official told Hindustan Times.
Conceptualised and initiated by former CM Devendra Fadnavis, the 701-km six-lane super expressway crosses through 10 districts. It is set to cut the travelling time from Mumbai to Nagpur to eight hours from 18 hours.
The high-speed corridor designed for a top speed of 150 km per hour is being built at around Rs 55,000 crore.
On Monday (4 April), Maharashtra CM Uddhav Thackeray reviewed the progress of the expressway and directed the official of the project’s nodal agency Maharashtra State Road Development Corporation (MSRDC), to ensure greenery alongside the expressway.