The 701 km Mumbai-Nagpur Balasaheb Thackeray Samruddhi Expressway will be ready by February 2022, as per reports. The government is creating a network of roadways in the state to improve connectivity and increase business activity. The Mumbai Trans-Harbour Link is expected to be commissioned by September-October 2023 while the Coastal Road project would be thrown open by December 2023.
The plan is to connect all state districts for which 5,500 km of roadways has been proposed. Once the expressway is commissioned, it will start work on extending it to Gondia, Bhandara, right up to Gadchiroli. The Maharashtra State Road Development Corporation (MSRDC) has also planned to improve connectivity within the state and also interstate connectivity. The Solapur-Chennai Expressway via Nandurbar and Mumbai-Pune-Nanded-Hyderabad Expressway were two such proposals of interstate connectivity.
The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) would spend Rs 12,700 crore on the Coastal Road project from its own resources without availing of any loan either from the central government or the state government. So far the city’s civic body has already spent over Rs 6,000 crore on the project and work was carried out uninterrupted all through the pandemic.
The industry’s goal of Rs two lakh crore investment, through its Magnetic Maharashtra Programme, will be achieved by December 2021-end, and by 2022 the state will receive another Rs five lakh crore investments of which Rs three lakh crore is expected in one sector alone. The State Government is also keen on having only electric vehicles for all public transport across Maharashtra.