Nagpur-Mumbai expressway goes one step further

The detailed project report (DPR) of the planned expressway between Nagpur and Mumbai will be finalised by the end of September, after which tenders will be floated in October, Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis reportedly said. The 710 km high-speed road corridor, connecting two key cities of the state, and costing Rs 46,000 crore, will pass through nearly a dozen districts, most of them spread over the Vidarbha and Marathwada regions. The project is expected to usher in prosperity, boost agro-based industries, attract globally competitive manufacturing units in Vidarbha and Marathwada, create thousands of job opportunities directly and indirectly for youth, and put Maharashtra ahead of other states by at least 20 years in terms of infrastructure and economic growth. The expressway will start from Nagpur and pass through 30 talukas of Wardha, Amravati, Washim, Buldana, Jalna, Aurangabad, Ahmednagar, Nashik and Thane districts. It will have 22 nodes or prosperity hubs, where truck terminus, commercial facilities, knowledge city, IT industries, and manufacturing units will come up. The six-lane highway will require 9,000 hectare. As per reports, making a departure from conventional approach to acquire land from farmers, the present government has adopted a participative approach for this project. It has opted for land pooling method by offering cash and developed land annuity-based returns to farmers, and so far, the response from farmers, particularly those from dry land areas, has been excellent, Fadnavis has reportedly expressed. The Maharashtra Government will pay farmers who voluntarily give land for the project, an amount of Rs 20,000-40,000 per acre for a period of 10 years with assured increase on annuity basis. Moreover, farmers will get back around one-fourth of the area or a developed plot ad-measuring 10,800 sq ft. This is the first time that the Maharashtra Government will be pooling land for a project of this gigantic scale.