Mumbai: In a significant boost to chief minister Devendra Fadnavis’ dream project, the Mumbai-Nagpur Ex-pressway aka Samruddhi Mahamarg, public sector banks have agreed to lend finance to the project. The State Bank of India (SBI), which has sanctioned Rs 8,500 crore, has emerged as the highest lender.
According to state officials, a consortium of banks — a majority of them public sector banks — has agreed to provide finance at a meeting held recently. Along with the SBI, other lenders include major banks like Punjab National Bank, Bank of Baroda and Bank of Maharashtra as well as Life Insurance Corpor-ation (LIC) of India.
The total cost of the Samruddhi Mahamarg, to be constructed by the Maharashtra State Road Development Corpor-ation Ltd. (MSRDCL), is Rs 55,000 crore, of which, Rs 26,000 crore is required for the construction of the expressway.
A senior state official said, “We were falling short of Rs 3000 to Rs 4000 crore to reach the target of Rs 26,000 crore. However, the consortium of banks has agreed to share that backlog too. It has solved the major issue of financial support for the project.”
The fact that land acquisition for the Samruddhi Mahamarg project is almost complete has pav-ed the way for banks agreeing on financial support to the project, said state officials.
“In case of road works, the major concern of lenders is always delay in land acquisition. How-ever, in case of this project, we have completed almost 95 per cent of land acquisition. Impressed by this fact, they have agreed to share the financial burden of the project,” said Bhushan Gagrani, principal secretary, chief minister’s office (CMO).
He added that there were some stretches left in Amravati and Aura-ngabad in terms of land acquisition but they hop-ed to sort that issue soon.
Total beneficiaries of the Samruddhi Maham-arg are 23,500 and the compensation given to landowners till date is Rs 6,600 crore. The total required land is 8311 hectares. Out of the 701 km total length of the project, construction of approximately 600 km will be completed in December 2020. Consid-ering the current speed of work, commuters will be able to travel from Nagpur to Igatpuri along this stretch.
