Mumbai-Nagpur Samruddhi Expressway’s opening postponed after arch collapses

The inauguration of the first phase of Mumbai-Nagpur Samruddhi Expressway has been postponed. The expressway was scheduled to be inaugurated on May 2.

The launch program of the Maharashtra government's Hindu Hrudaysamrat Balasaheb Thackeray Maharashtra Samruddhi Expressway has been postponed. The first phase of the expressway, from Nagpur to Shelu Bazar, was to be inaugurated by Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray on May 2.

Maharashtra State Road Development Corporation Limited (MSRDC) had issued a request to postpone the inauguration. The arch structures of the Wildlife over-pass from the fifteenth kilometer of the expressway, which should have been completed by April 30, are running behind schedule.

“Some of the 105 strips of the overpass have suffered damage due to an accident. Experts visited the site and it was decided that a new superstructure will be constructed, which will take 45 days. Without the construction of a wildlife overpass, the expressway cannot be open to the public, hence the inauguration has been pushed ahead,” said an MSRDC official.

Samriddhi Expressway will reduce travel time between Nagpur and Mumbai from sixteen hours to just eight hours. The speed on this expressway will be 120 kmph.

This will be the country’s largest ever expressway, connecting ten districts, 25 tehsils and 391 villages in a span of 701 kilometers. Costing Rs 55 thousand crores, it will be a six lane highway with 11 lakh trees planted along it.