Union Road Transport and Highways Minister Nitin Gadkari announced that the Mumbai-Delhi greenfield expressway will be extended to the Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust (JNPT) instead of ending at Thane district in Maharashtra. The expressway will be India’s flagship expressway with 120 km per hour speed limit. It will cut the distance between Mumbai and Delhi by over 220 km. The State Government will be partner in the Mumbai-Delhi expressway construction by means of GST exemption and royalty-free supply of steel and cement, which will be considered as State Government equity in the project. This extension of the road will cost around Rs 15,000 crore.
Apart from this, road works worth around Rs 7,000 crore had been approved for the state. The annual plan for national highway works in Maharashtra was approved for Rs 2,727 crore, but has been raised to Rs 5,801 crore, which will improve and develop 1,035 km national highways in the state. Reconstruction of five major bridges and 10 minor bridges will be done at a cost of Rs 429 crore. Moreover, projects worth Rs 1,800 crore under the Central Road Fund have been sanctioned.