‘Can’t start E-way work in 6 months’

Union minister for road transport and highways Nitin Gadkari had, while addressing the gathering at the inauguration of Metro lines of the city, announced last month that the government would start work on the long-awaited Mumbai-Vadodara Expressway in the next six months. But this seems to have not gone down well with the National Highway Authority of India (NHAI).

If sources from the NHAI are to be believed, land acquisition on the Dahisar-Dahanu stretch, which comes in the state of Maharashtra, is proving to be a very difficult task and it is not possible for it to start work within six months, as announced by Mr Gadkari.

The 400-km Mumbai-Vadodara Expressway will cost Rs 27,000 crore, out of which Rs 10,000 crore will be spent on acquiring land and the rest on the expressway.

The proposed expressway passes through various places in Thane district in Maharashtra, the Union Territory of Dadra and Nagar Haveli as well as Valsad, Navsari, Surat and Bharuch in Gujarat. The NHAI is to acquire 136 hectares of land in Thane district, 59 hectares of land in Dadra and Nagar Haveli and 3,230 hectares of land in Gujarat.

Rajeev Singh, chief general manager, NHAI Maharashtra, said, “It is not practically feasible at this point of time to expect us to start work within the next six months, as we are yet acquire land in Thane district. We have to acquire a total of 136 hectares there. We also need to plan on changing the alignment of the project as locals have protested against the land acquisition. It may take us a minimum of a year to bring things back on track before starting work on the stretch.”

The greenfield expressway will be implemented on the basis of the ‘design, build, finance, operate’ concept. The expressway between Surat and Vadodara will be of six lanes and between Mumbai and Surat it will be of eight lanes. It has also faced the ire of local farmers in Gujarat who have raised their voices against the land acquisition for the expressway.

Minister of state for road transport and highways, Pon Radhakrishnan, had earlier stated, “Various representations that were received by NHAI opposing the land acquisition and requesting the change of alignment of the project are being examined and a detailed project report is also being modified wherever it is feasible, and because of this it is not possible to indicate the date of completion of this expressway.”