If things go according to plan, the Maharashtra State Road Development Corporation (MSRDC) will come out with a detailed project report (DPR) for the 800-km-long Mumbai-Nagpur Expressway in the next three months. MSRDC has appointed Ernst and Young as the consultant for the project and it is also planning to have smart cities, IT parks and provide facilities like that of CCTV cameras and Wi-Fi along the stretch of the Expressway. This expressway will be called ‘Communication Super Expressway’ and will connect Mumbai to chief minister Devendra Fadnavis’ hometown in Nagpur.
The expressway will pass through Ghoti-Amravati-Aurangabad and it is said it will cut travel time to 10 hours from the current 16-17 hours.
According to a MSRDC official, construction of the Mumbai-Nagpur Expressway is not going to be an easy task when compared to the Mumbai-Pune Expressway, which is 95 km long.
“We will have to coordinate with various authorities throughout the 800-km stretch it is passing from,” he said.
According to reports, the expressway will have eight lanes with service roads. It was earlier planned that the expressway would be constructed in two phases. The first phase included land acquisition of the four-road lane and the next phase included building a six-lane concrete road. But now there is enough land available with the state to directly start construction of eight lanes, according to a senior MSRDC official.
