Samruddhi Express to soon open for Mumbaikars

To ensure seamless traffic movement, the Maharashtra State Road Development Corporation (MSRDC) plans to open the ongoing Samruddhi Mahamarg for vehicles soon.The corporation has assigned an agency to refurbish the existing Mumbai Nashik Highway (NH3) of 23.5 kilometre stretch between Vadpe and Majiwada in Thane.

As Samruddhi Mahamarg is mostly used by commercial vehicles to reach Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust (JNPT) via Mumbra bypass there is a chaos of vehicles on NH3, said a senior official of MSRDC who did not wish to be named.

As per the previous Samruddhi Mahamarg plan, the road from Nashik towards Mumbai ends at Vadpe. Thereafter the vehicles have to use Thane Road. As this will create massive traffic problems on the existing Mumbai roads, the improvement of NH3 was considered a priority, asserted the MSRDC official.

The said project involves constructing four-lane new cement concrete (CC) Rd by utilising the Right of Way (ROW) of 30 metres on both sides at the existing Mumbai-Nashik Highway. Once that is ready and open to traffic, the existing four-lane bitumen road will be converted into cc. Also, 2+2 additional service roads will be made from both sides. The total cost of this project amounts to Rs 1,182 crore, the official explained.

A fresh Memorandum of Understanding(MoU) has been signed between MSRDC and NHAI (National Highway Authority of India). Following the previous concessionaire company MEP & its partner Logjian failed to undertake the project, which was handed over in 2018, said the MSRDC official. "As work of Samruddhi Mahamarg is progressing, therefore we aim to begin this 23.5 km new Road project from Dusserha onwards. In the next two years, we have targeted that it be ready for traffic movement." the official added.

Reportedly, the MSRDC nodal agency undertaking the Samruddhi Mahamarg project of 700-km long will reduce the travel time between Nagpur and Mumbai by six hours. Currently, one has to take NH3 (Mumbai-Dhule) and then NH6 (Dhule-Nagpur) to reach Nagpur, travelling 800kms. Phase 1 between Nagpur and Shirdi was to open in May this year however delayed due to the prevailing Covid-19 situation.