MIDC gives Rs 250cr more for Samruddhi corridor

Mumbai: Maharashtra Industrial Development Corporation (MIDC) on Thursday handed over Rs 250 crore cheque to Maharashtra State Road Development Corporation (MSRDC). The money will be used for land acquisition for Samruddhi Expressway proposed between Mumbai and Nagpur.

Earlier, five state gover-nment corporations had agreed to fund Rs 5,000 cro-re to MSRDC for the land acquisition. MIDC had already given its share of Rs 1,000 crore.  The industries minister Subhash Desai handed over the ch-eque to the public works minister Eknath Shinde.

According to the MSRDC officials, five state public sector units  have already sanctioned Rs 4,700 crore against the authority’s target of Rs 5,500 crore. In addition to this, equity of Rs 1,111 crore has been chipped in by MSRDC. The total cost of the expressway is Rs 55,305 crore. Initially, the cost was Rs 46.000 cro-re, but it rose after delay in commencing the work.

“Contractors have been appointed for all 17 packages so by December first week, we plan to start the work,” said a senior official from MSRDC.

The officials revealed that 90 per cent of the land acquisition for the project has been completed which was mandatory for contractors to begin the work.