Prime Minister Narendra Modi will on Sunday inaugurate Phase I of the Mumbai-Nagpur Hindu Hrudaysamrat Balasaheb Thackeray Samruddhi Expressway, a 520-km stretch connecting Nagpur and Shirdi in Ahmednagar. The PM will visit Maharashtra and Goa on Sunday to inaugurate several projects.
The six-lane road is the second greenfield expressway in the state after the Mumbai-Pune Expressway. The entire 701-km project connecting Mumbai to Nagpur is expected to be completed by July 2023. Estimated to cost Rs 55,000 crore, it’s the second major expressway in Maharashtra after the Mumbai-Pune Expressway. Officially known as the Hindu Hrudaysamrat Balasaheb Thackeray Maharashtra Samruddhi Mahamarg, the 701-km Mumbai-Nagpur Expressway passes through 14 districts, six talukas, and 392 villages. It will have 24 interchanges, 38 bridges that are over 30 metres long, and 283 others that are shorter than 30 metres. It is expected to boost development opportunities and trade in the drought-prone areas of Marathwada and Vidarbha. It’s also expected to cut down the current 16-hour travel time between Maharashtra’s summer capital Mumbai and winter capital Nagpur by half.