National Highway project: Detailed reports sought for Maharashtra's 16 highways

Within a week of the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MoRTH) deciding to include 3,883km of state highways in the National Highway (NH) project, the Maharashtra State Road Development Corporation (MSRDC) has decided to get Detailed Project Reports (DPRs) for 16 stretches, including the Nagpur-Mumbai Super Communication Express Highway.

On November 5, a Maharashtra government team, including Minister of Public Works Chandrakant Patil and MSRDC vice-chairman and managing director Radheshyam Mopalwaar, met MoRTH minister Nitin Gadkari and it was decided that several state highway stretches will be included in the NH projects.

"The government of India has identified 16 stretches of roads within Maharashtra that need to be widened to de-congest state highways. So DPRs of these 16 stretches (see box) would be made," said Mopalwaar.

Submission of DPRs will begin only by the end of the ongoing fiscal year and continue during the next financial year. The report will detail about the technicalities and feasibility of the project. Once that is submitted, the MoRTH will decide on what action needs to be taken to undertake the highway upgrade work, if the project is feasible or not, if it has to be taken on build-operate-transfer (BOT) financial model, wherein toll is levied, or cash-contract model is possible to save motorists from paying toll.

Some of these stretches include Aurangabad-Jalgaon-Nashik, Karad-Chiplum-Guhagar, Pune-Mulshi-Mangaon-Dighi Port, Satara-Akluj-Latur and Indore-Jamner-Aurangabad. The total length of the highway is over 4,000km.