Bridge over Savitri River to open by June

The Maharashtra Public Works Department (PWD) plans to inaugurate a new bridge over Savitri River connecting the MumbaiGoa highway. It would be inaugurated by Nitin Gadkari, Minister for Road Transport, and Udhavv Thackeray, Shiv Sena president, on June 5.

The new bridge was started after the existing bridge collapsed last year. The announcement regarding the new bridge was made by Chandrakant Patil, state revenue minister, during a press conference on Monday. The bridge near Mahad was washed away during the floods in August 2016, which killed at least 30 people.

Patil said their main target was to construct a new bridge before rains begin this year. He also spoke about the increase in the road length of the national highways since the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government came to power at the Centre.

“There has been an increase of 15,000 km in the road length of the national highways since the new government came to power at the Centre. We increased the road length of the national highways from 5,600 km to 19,525 km,” said Patil.

Rs 70,000 crore of Detailed Project Report (DPR) has been prepared for the work for increasing the road length of the national highways. The central government has spent Rs 1 lakh crore on this work and further work will begin after monsoon.

“Further work on increasing the road length of the national highways will begin once the rains reduce in the month of September and will be completed by January 2019,” said Patil.

Projects like widening of Mumbai-Goa highway to four-lane road is also scheduled to be completed by March 2018.

PWD officials said the work for the same has been divided into 10 phases, of which the first phase from Panvel to Indapur will be completed by next year. The remaining stretch from Indapur to Zarap would be completed by January 2019.