Maharashtra’s most ambitious road infrastructure project, the 701-km-long Samruddhi Mahamarg, will become fully operational on Thursday (June 5) after the final 76-km stretch from Igatpuri in Nashik to Amane in Thane is inaugurated. The expressway has been billed as a game changer that will slash travel time between Mumbai and Nagpur to just seven hours. Expressway and final stretch The Samruddhi Mahamarg – officially Hindu Hrudaysamrat Balasaheb Thackeray Maharashtra Samruddhi Mahamarg – was conceived during Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis’s first term in 2016. The rare greenfield expressway would be a high-speed corridor between Mumbai, the state’s commercial capital, and Nagpur, its winter capital, and cut the travel time between the two cities to just seven hours. The Rs 55,335 crore project required the acquisition of more than 8,800 hectares of land from almost 24,000 farmers in 10 districts. The first phase of the six-lane (expandable to eight) access-controlled expressway was inaugurated in December 2022. The inauguration of the final, most crucial Igatpuri-Amane stretch will make the entire 701-km corridor fully functional. Connectivity to Mumbai Although popularly known as the Mumbai-Nagpur Expressway, the Samruddhi Mahamarg doesn’t actually begin in Mumbai. It starts from Amane in the adjoining Thane district, and its entry point is about 63 km from Mantralaya, the state’s administrative headquarters – a distance that typically takes around 2 hours and 10 minutes to cover even during non-peak traffic hours. For those accessing it from Amane and beyond, however, the project, which is world-class in design and execution, offers significant connectivity benefits. The new 76-km stretch, that will be inaugurated on Thursday, will be especially impactful. With the opening of this final segment, travel time between Amane and Igatpuri will be halved from more than 90 minutes to just 40 minutes. It will also eliminate the need for commuters currently joining the expressway at Ghoti to navigate the long, winding Kasara Ghat on the Mumbai-Nashik Highway. Instead of the steep 450-metre climb through the Western Ghats on the old Mumbai-Nashik Highway, the new alignment features a straighter route with an elevation gain of only 160 metres, significantly reducing both travel time and fuel consumption. Smoothing the way for Mumbaikars For commuters travelling from Mumbai and Navi Mumbai, the nearest access point for Samruddhi Mahamarg is near Bhiwandi, close to Shangrila Water Park, via the existing Mumbai-Nashik Highway. The area around Bhiwandi is a major logistics hub, crowded with warehouses and heavy commercial traffic. Recognising the difficulties commuters face in accessing Samruddhi Mahamarg, the Maharashtra government has proposed the expansion and eight-laning of a crucial 23-km stretch from Thane to Vadape, near the entry point of the expressway. This segment is part of the busy Mumbai-Nashik Highway, a vital corridor for traffic headed towards North Maharashtra, Delhi, and beyond. However, the stretch has several bottlenecks, most notably the narrow Kasheli Bridge, a part of which collapsed last year. In 2019, the state launched a Rs 1,252 crore project to widen the road and build new bridges. The project was set to be completed in 2021, but has been plagued by delays – the current deadline for completion in end-2025. The completion of the upgradation will bring the promise of seamless, high-speed connectivity offered by Samruddhi Mahamarg closer to reality.
