One of the most prominent highway projects of India in recent times, the Mumbai-Nagpur Samruddhi Expressway has just been inaugurated by the Honourable Prime Minister of India Narendra Modi. According to the Government of India, the 500 km stretch of the project from the total of 701 km that connects Nagpur to the major pilgrimage Shirdi will be first inaugurated. The remainder of the expressway from Shirdi till Mumbai will be finished in the coming months and will be inaugurated then.
The government claims that the 701-km-long roadway will aid in the development of the Vidarbha and Marathwada regions of Maharashtra and it stated that the remaining 181 km of the expressway will be completed by 2024. It would finish in the Bhiwandi district and connect Shirdi and Mumbai. The government is also aiming to renovate the 3.5 km long Mumbai-Nashik highway (NH 3) between Vadpe and Majiwada regions of Thane in order to accommodate commercial trucks travelling from Nagpur to Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust (JNPT).
The newly constructed Hindu Hrudaysamrat Balasaheb Thackeray Maharashtra Samruddhi Mahamarg expressway is the second expressway in the state of Maharashtra after the Mumbai-Pune Expressway. The entire cost of developing the 701km highway, including land acquisition and engineering, is estimated to be Rs 55,332 crore. The journey time between Mumbai and Nagpur would be cut in half from 16 to 8 hours thanks to the connections it will make between the ten districts of Nagpur, Wardha, Amravati, Washim, Buldhana, Jalna, Aurangabad, Nashik, Ahmednagar and Thane. It would assist a new economic corridor springing up along the route, and 14 districts will be connected to the port in Mumbai.
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Other recent news regarding the Nagpur-Mumbai Super Communication Expressway includes the signing of an Economic Development Cooperation Fund (EDCF) loan for Korean Won 245.081 billion (roughly Rs. 1,495.68 crores) to establish an Intelligent Transport System on the project’s Nagpur-Mumbai Super Communication Expressway.
Commenting on the announcement, the Ministry of Finance of Korea said, “The objectives of the project are to enhance the efficiency in traffic management through establishment of the Intelligent Traffic Management System (ITMS) and traffic centre, to improve the efficiency in toll management through the establishment of the Toll Collection System (TCS) and to establish a sustainable model of ITS and its O&M through transfer of technology from the Republic of Korea,”
Established in 1987, the Economic Development Co-operation Institution (EDCF) serves a significant role as Korea’s representative assistance fund. As an OECD DAC member, the government of Korea is continually considering the demands of developing countries for infrastructure growth and attempts to construct a new development cooperation model and increase the level of aid quality. The EDCF aids partner nations in the provision of loans for their economic growth. The EDCF’s loans are handled by the Export-Import Bank of Korea under the supervision of the Ministry of Strategy and Finance. The bilateral relationship between India and South Korea was elevated to ‘Special Strategic Partnership’ in the year 2015.
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