Aurangabad-Pune expressway work to begin soon: Gadkari

The time taken to travel between Pune and Nagpur, a distance of around 720 km, will be reduced to six hours with the development of the expressway between Aurangabad and Pune. Union Road Transport Minister Nitin Gadkari has said that the work on the road will start soon, adding that six express highways are being built in Maharashtra. The access-controlled expressway between Aurangabad and Pune, a distance of around 225 km, will be built at a cost of Rs 100 billion, Gadkari said in Nagpur last week. Earlier, Gadkari had said that this expressway will have no turns and vehicles will be able to travel at speeds of up to 140 kmph. The travel time between Aurangabad and Pune will be reduced to 1.15 hours from the current 4-5 hours, he had added. The Aurangabad-Pune green expressway will connect Pune to the 701 km Hindu Hhriday Samrat Balasaheb Thackeray Samruddhi Mahamarg. The proposed expressway has a length of 268 km, which includes a ring road around Pune city and a 20-km spur connecting Ranjangaon and Bidkin-Shendra. The Hindu Hriday Samrat Balasaheb Thackeray Samruddhi Mahamarg will cover a distance of 701 km. Phase-1 will cover 530 km and connect Nagpur and Shirdi. The expressway is being built at a cost of Rs 550 billion. See also: MoRTH sets 12,200-km highway building target for ’22-23Surety bonds for highway contractors in the offing