Chief minister Devendra Fadnavis’ project that will connect his hometown Nagpur with Mumbai, the 800-km-long Mumbai-Nagpur expressway, might miss its deadline of 2019, a date given by Mr Fadnavis in August this year.
A senior bureaucrat of MSRDC, on the condition of anonymity, said, “ The Mumbai-Nagpur expressway is not an easy task. It may take us a minimum of ten years to complete a project that of 800-km, for which land needs to be acquired at various cities and villages of Marathwada, Vidarbha and the rest of Maharashtra. Nothing related to the expressway is on paper yet and everything is just about exploring possibilities.”
The expressway will pass through Ghoti-Amravati-Aurangabad and it has been said that the project will cut travel time to 10 hours from the current 18 hours.
Radheshyam Mopalwar, managing director, MSRDC, said, “Everything is at the starting stage for now and we need to acquire 8,000 hectares for the expressway and it is not an easy task. For now, we have floated tenders for the detailed project report (DPR) and talks about Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) are in process. The Centre has also shown interest in financing the project. We are doing our best to make things work and the expressway is also one of the topmost priorities of the MSRDC.”
It is interesting to note that MSRDC has also claimed that the expressway will pass through the most backward regions of Maharashtra and it also has plans to bring up IT parks, smart cities and educational hubs along the expressway wherever possible. MSRDC also has plans to have CCTV cameras and Wi-Fi on the expressway.
Sudhir Paliwal, convener, Vidarbha environment action group, said, “It is not surprising to know that it will miss its deadline because the authorities will have to deal with the local farmers at various regions of Vidarbha who might protest against the project as they might be displaced by the expressway. Also,as per the plans, a lot of land acquisition will need clearance from the ministry of environment and forest, as it will have to pass by forestland in the Vidarbha region.
The estimated cost of the project is Rs 30,000 crore and it is going to be called the ‘Communication Super Expressway’ as it will connect the financial capital of the country with Nagpur and will also pass through backward areas of the state like Sinnar, Jalna, Shendra, Waluj Wardha and Amravati.
