Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday inaugurated the first phase of the Nagpur-Mumbai ‘Samruddhi Expressway’ here. The first phase connects Nagpur to the temple town of Shirdi in Ahmednagar district covering a distance of 520 km.
Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde and Dy. Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis took veiled jibes at former CM Uddhav Thackeray’s Shiv Sena faction during PM Narendra Modi’s inauguration of the Mumbai-Nagpur ‘Samruddhi Expressway’ named after late Sena founder Bal Thackeray.
“Samruddhi Expressway is not just a highway but a game-changer that will be known as Maharashtra’s lifeline whose road quality is even better than Germany’s autobahn. There were many difficulties to this project with severe opposition to land acquisition. Many people (Leaders of Thackeray’s Sena) tried to ensure this project stalled. But Devendra Fadnavis showed firm resolution on starting the project when he was CM. Today, we are working together,” Mr. Shinde said.
PM Modi also hit out at oppostion parties during Nagpur tour. He said, “There is a disposition on part of political parties to adopt short-cut politics for their selfish ends. Such parties,whose aim is merely to seize power by making hollow promises, are the biggest enemies of the taxpayer. Earlier governments had sacrificed taxpayers’ money to votebank politics and indulged in corruption.”
The length of the total project, officially named as ‘Hindu Hrudaysamrat Balasaheb Thackeray Maharashtra Samruddhi Mahamarg’, will be 701 km.
The project is the brainchild of Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis and was conceptualised when he was the chief minister in 2015. Once completed, the expressway will reduce the travel time from Nagpur to Mumbai to seven hours.
