Mumbai–Nagpur Expressway

The Mumbai-Nagpur Expressway or Samruddhi Mahamarg (officially known as Hindu Hrudaysamrat Balasaheb Thackeray Maharashtra Samruddhi Mahamarg) and Maharashtra Expressway-2 (ME-2), is a partially opened 6-lane wide (expandable to 8), 701-km long access-controlled expressway in Maharashtra, India. It is amongst the country's longest greenfield road projects, which will connect the two capital cities of the state, its capital, Mumbai, and its third-largest and alternate capital city, Nagpur. This project was the brainchild of Devendra Fadnavis and was conceptualised by him when he was chief minister of the state back in 2015. It is being led by the state infrastructure arm Maharashtra State Road Development Corporation (MSRDC), and is designed under the Engineering, Procurement and Construction (EPC) model.
With the route alignment connecting Shivmadka village in Nagpur district to Amane village in Bhiwandi Town Of Thane district, the expressway is capable of providing an enhanced connectivity to the Marathwada and Vidarbha regions. The total project cost, including the land acquisition cost, is around ₹55,000 crore (equivalent to ₹580 billion or US$6.8 billion in 2023). The Government of Maharashtra believes that the expressway will become a prosperity corridor for the overall socio-economic growth of the state.
The Mumbai–Nagpur Expressway will travel through 10 key districts directly and 14 districts indirectly via feeder roads, 24 talukas, and 392 villages. The 10 main districts are Nagpur, Wardha, Amravati, Washim, Buldhana, Jalna, Aurangabad, Nashik, Ahmednagar and Thane. The other 14 districts include Chandrapur, Bhandara, Gondia, Gadchiroli, Yavatmal, Akola, Hingoli, Parbhani, Nanded, Beed, Dhule, Jalgaon, Palghar and Raigad. Yavatmal City is going to Connect with Four Lane road to Samruddhi Expressway and Amravati too.Four Lane Road will be construct between Yavatmal City to Badnera.
Below are the lists of cities/towns through which the Mumbai–Nagpur Expressway will connect:
To create a fast logistics gateway for national and international trade, the expressway will connect the country's largest container port JNPT in Mumbai to Mihan in Nagpur. The expressway will allow access to several industrial and economic corridors through 24 interchanges at strategic locations. It will widely connect the Delhi–Mumbai Industrial Corridor, Bengaluru–Chennai Economic Corridor, Western Dedicated Freight Corridor, Eastern Dedicated Freight Corridor, Chennai–Vizag Economic Corridor and Golden Quadrilateral. Apart from JNPT other seaports including Kandla MBPT, Mormugao, New Mangalore, Kochi, Chennai, Visakhapatnam and Ennore will also have indirect connectivity.
To expedite the pre-construction work on the expressway, MSRDC decided to divide the design work into 5 packages and hired a separate consultancy firm to prepare the Detailed Project Report (DPR) for each package. On 31 May 2017, the Government of Maharashtra incorporated 'Nagpur Mumbai Super Communication Expressway Limited', a special purpose vehicle (SPV) to manage the financial requirement for the construction and operation of this project.
The construction work of 701 km long Mumbai–Nagpur Expressway is divided into 16 packages, with work awarded to 13 different contractors including Afcons Infrastructure, Larsen & Toubro (L&T) and Reliance Infrastructure.
As of 31 May 2021, out of the total 1699 structures including flyovers, viaducts, major and minor bridges, tunnels, interchanges, etc., construction of 1286 structures has already been completed and the construction of 253 structures are inching towards completion. Total 6 tunnels will be built along the expressway and the construction for all of the tunnels is underway in full swing.
The Government of Maharashtra has authorized MSRDC to act as the New Town Development Authority to venture into the long-term development of 19 new towns at strategic nodes, which is also coined as 'Krushi Samruddhi Nagar.' The provisions are enacted under sub-sec (1) and section 113 of the MR & TP Act, 1966. The developmental objective to propose these new towns is to encourage the self-employment potential of the regional population through their primitive occupation i.e., agriculture or agro-related businesses.
Every township developed under the initiative of Krushi Samruddhi Nagar will be built in a land area of approximately 1000-1500 hectares. The new towns shall serve as the utility economic nodes for food processing industry, integrated logistics, and domestic food markets along with education centers, skill development institutes, healthcare facilities, and commercial and residential housings. The new townships will offer huge industrial land-banks with a focus on dedicated export-oriented infrastructure and integrated logistics to ease supply chain with enhanced road connectivity for domestic markets.
The 19 new towns will be developed at strategic intersections at a distance of 30 to 40 km from each other. These towns will be developed in two phases; phase one includes seven townships while the remaining eleven townships will be developed in phase two. The new towns will encompass essential facilities including schools, Industrial Training Institutes (ITIs), skill development centers, institutes providing technical education and amp, higher education, hospitals, police stations, playgrounds, open spaces, parks and sports complexes. The new townships will be easily accessible from main roads, feeder roads, national or state highways intersecting the Samruddhi Expressway through the public transport system. The MSRDC adopted land pooling model for land acquisition, wherein 30 percent of the total land acquired under 'Krushi Samruddhi Kendra' program will be returned to landowners. The farmers will also receive compensation of Rs 50,000 per hectare for non-irrigated land and Rs 1 lakh every year for irrigated land for the next 10 years. Based on the suggestions from Wildlife Institute of India (WII), wildlife mitigation measures are planned and necessary structures like cattle underpasses are being built for uninterrupted wildlife movement. Around 320 private communicators were trained and deployed by MSRDC for land acquisition negotiations with prospecting landowners.
Following will either connect or act as an alternative to the Mumbai–Nagpur Expressway:
01/08/2023 - 17 people were dead and 3 were injured when under-construction crane had collapsed on workers in Thane in early hours of Tuesday morning. PM Modi had announced 2 lakh ex gratia for those who died.