In a major relief for commuters travelling from Nagpur to Pune, Union Highways Minister Nitin Gadkari on 30 October has said that travel time for commuters travelling from Nagpur to Pune will cut down to eight hours. Continuing further, Gadkari said, that the Nagpur-Mumbai Samridhi Mahamarg will be connected to the newly proposed Pune-Aurangabad Access Control Green Expressway which will help cover the distance of Nagpur to Pune in eight hours.
Announcing in a tweet, Gadkari wrote, “Nagpur to Pune journey will be possible in eight hours! Considering the inconvenience to commuters currently traveling from Nagpur to Pune, the Nagpur-Mumbai Samridhi Mahamarg will be connected to the newly proposed Pune-Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar (Aurangabad) Access Control Green Expressway near Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar (Aurangabad) He further added that the road will be constructed with a completely new alignment by NHAI. Explaining the route, he said, this will make it possible to travel from Pune to Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar (Aurangabad) in two and half hours and from Nagpur to Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar (Aurangabad) in five and half hours through Samruddhi Mahamarg."
Gadkari's announcement came days after Chief Minister Eknath Shinde disclosed that the first phase of 520 km Nagpur to Shirdi of the Samruddhi Mahamarg will be commissioned in November. The state government proposes to inaugurate the first phase by Prime Minister Mr Narendra Modi as it awaits confirmation of his availability from his office. ‘’Samruddhi Expressway connecting Nagpur-Mumbai will be commissioned soon from Nagpur to Shirdi. The distance from Nagpur to Aurangabad is 410 Km and further Samruddhi will be connected to the Aurangabad-Pune expressway with a distance of 268 Km. Thus, a total length of 678 Km from Nagpur to Pune can be covered in 8 hours,’’ said Mr Gadkari. The Ministry hopes that the proposed new expressway will ease traffic as road connectivity through the existing Pune – Ahmednagar - Aurangabad Highway is overloaded with local and Industrial traffic. The proposed alignment provides connectivity from South India (Goa, Bangalore and other districts of Karnataka via the Pune - Bangalore Expressway) to Pune, Aurangabad, Nagpur and further to Madhya Pradesh and Northern India. ‘’The proposed alignment has a length of 268 km including the 39 km length of the proposed ring road around Pune City. Also, it has a 20 km length Spur (12 km to Ranjangaon & 8 km to Bidkin - Shendra),’’ said Mr Gadkari. He further added that it will be a six-lane expressway expandable to 8 lanes with a designed speed of 120 kmph.