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Nitin Gadkari, Union Minister for Road Transport and Highways, said on Thursday that the condition of the national highway from Pune to Kolhapur would improve and that travel time would come down in a year.
“The National Highway Authority of India (NHAI) has changed the developer of the Pune-Satara road stretch and appointed a new one to speed up the development of the road,” he said while responding to concerns raised by NCP (SP) MP Supriya Sule in Parliament on the condition of the highway and the accidents at the Navale bridge, which falls under her Baramati constituency
“The Union Government has undertaken a fresh survey of the national highway stretch from Pune to Satara. Steps are being taken to improve the road condition. To resolve the issues, work worth Rs 6,000 crore will be taken up on the highway soon,” said Gadkari.
A new tunnel is being constructed at Khambatki Ghat, and one lane will soon be opened for traffic, Gadkari said, adding that this would reduce travel time between Pune and Satara.
Gadkari further said that the work on the Satara-Kolhapur stretch heading towards Bengaluru was going on, adding that a few technical problems had been resolved.
The condition of the Pune-Kolhapur highway will thus improve drastically in a year, he said.
Sule had pointed out that the Navale bridge on the Mumbai-Bengaluru bypass on the highway continued to witness accidents. “The Union roads and highway ministry had taken steps to improve the situation. The number of accidents has reduced, but there was a fatal accident recently. There is a need for an accident-free road,” the NCP (SP) working president had said.
