The Maharashtra State Road Development Corporation (MSRDC) has decided on developing industrial training and skill development centres alongside the Samruddhi Mahamarg. It is also known as the super communication expressway from Nagpur to Mumbai.
A tender has been issued regarding the same to invite interested agencies to bid for this project. A pre-bid meeting has been scheduled for the 4th of September at 3 p.m. for the agencies who are interested in this venture and desire to take up this work. 18th September till 3 pm is the last date for the submission of bids. This will be done by paying Rs 10,000 for participation in the tender process excluding the GST.
A senior official of the MSRDC in an interview said that once this corridor is developed, these growth centres will open up several opportunities. The corridor will also provide direct connectivity to the Jawarharlal Nehru Port Trust which is India’s largest container port and these industrial and skill development centres will also help the companies to supply goods to and fro. It will help the government to generate revenue and provide job opportunities to the nearby villagers.
“We are expecting a few months of delay due to COVID-19 and further depending on the situation. Like from Nagpur to Igatpuri the project as per our previous timeline was July 2021 however due to this pandemic the target we are expecting to extend until December 2021. Besides, the entire project timeline was of September 2022. However, there might be a delay of again four to five months depending upon the situation,” . was explained by another official from the MSRDC.
The construction work at Samruddhi Mahamarg is going on constantly and up till now 35% of the construction work has been completed despite the lockdown because of this pandemic and other difficulties like manpower shortage, the official further informed. So far, 27 per cent of the project has been utilised.
The longest tunnel will be constructed between Igatpuri and Kasara Ghat at the super communication expressway. The MSRDC official informed that the tunnelling work will be about four kilometres long ending at Igatpuri.
Currently, to reach Nagpur, the route that is taken is NH3 which is the Mumbai-Dhule highway continuing the route on NH6 that is the Dhule to Nagpur Highway which is 800 kilometres on road. This newly built super communication expressway will surely reduce around a hundred kilometres on road distance. The long expressway of 700 kilometres with three lanes on both the sides, once ready will reduce the travel time between Nagpur-Mumbai to six hours.
However, this initiative by the MSRDC will turn out to be very beneficial and helpful.
Image Credits- The Financial Express