Samruddhi Expressway will turn runway in emergencies

Third mega project, after Yamuna Expressway and Lucknow-Agra Expressway, to double up for ‘strategic interests’; 22% works over

Vast stretches of Samruddhi Expressway, which is under construction, will come handy for Indian Air Force (IAF) fighter and cargo planes in case of an emergency or a war-like situation, during which air force bases often become inaccessible. Radheshyam Mopalwar, managing director of the Maharashtra State

Road Development Corporation (MSRDC), which is the nodal agency for the project, confirmed this to FPJ.

Mopalwar also said 22% of the Expressway construction work has been completed so far,

Since the super communication expressway is 700 kilometres long, with three lanes on both the sides, at various places it provides a continuous stretch of road, which can facilitate aircraft landing. For landing of a fighter plane, usually a three-km stretch of road is required, which is available on the Samruddhi Expressway, explained another official from the MSRDC, who didn't want to be named. In the recent past, IAF had carried out test-landing on Yamuna Expressway near Delhi and on a stretch of Lucknow-Agra Expressway. IAF had made clear its intention to activate more such stretches.

Interestingly, if the project is completed on the set deadline (3 years & 2 months) then it will turn out to be one of the finest Maharashtra projects to emerge successful with flying colours despite facing many hurdles. In fact, of the project total, 8,311 hectares of land have been acquired by spending Rs 6,991 crore in compensation part alone. The state had issued a government resolution wherein the project-affected landowners were compensated five times the market value of land cost, said the official adding the majority of the acquired land was from farmers.

The super communication expressway, one of the ambitious state-run projects, is being built at a cost of Rs 55,335.32 crore. This expressway will have 24 interchanges, 38 bridges of more than 30 metres long and 283 bridges which are less than 30 metres.

About 20,000 labourers including engineers, planners, and other officials associated with this project and onsite, building the Mumbai-Nagpur Super Communication Expressway. The project work has been divided into 16 packages and the date of work orders has already been issued in all the packages. The work is expected to be finished in 30 months' time period (package 1 till 13) and the remaining package work deadline is of 38 months.

Once ready, the expressway will reduce the travel time between NagpurMumbai to six hours. Currently, to reach Nagpur, one has to take NH3 (Mumbai-Dhule) and then NH6 (Dhule -Nagpur) comprising 800 kilometres on road. The newly built super communication expressway will reduce about a hundred kilometres of road distance.

6 tunnels, longest 7.7km

The expressway will be passing through six tunnels, the longest being constructed between Igatpuri and Kasara Ghat comprising 7.7 kilometres. On this, 260 metres and 160 metres of tunnelling work has been completed on both sides. It will have cross passages at every 300 metres, besides fire-fighting equipment like sprinklers & public announcement facility.

Funds & Utility Corridor

MSRDC, as planned, has left 3m space on each side of the expressway to be developed as 'Utility Corridor', where service providers will put up gas, petrol, power lines, etc. The money thus earned will be apart from the toll MSRDC collects.