Maharashtra to raise Rs 26,700 crore for Mumbai-Nagpur expressway

The project would pass through 10 districts, 30 tehsils and 354 villages

Maharashtra State Road Development Corporation (MSRDC) will raise Rs 26,700 crore, half of it from the domestic market, for the 710 km Mumbai-Nagpur super-communication expressway named Samriddhi Marg. The Asian Development Bank (ADB) is expected to provide the remaining Rs 13,750 crore. 

MSRDC, the nodal agency for the project, has roped in SBI Caps to mop up funds. MSRDC will fund the engineering-procurement-construction contract in its entirety and has sought the state government’s approval for approaching the ADB for the long-term loan. 

Maharashtra’s Public Works Minister Eknath Shinde said the project, which would pass through 10 districts, 30 tehsils and 354 villages, would have toll contractors in rotation for two or three years after the expressway’s launch in 2019. MSRDC Vice-Chairman and Managing Director Radheshyam Mopalwar said funds would not be an issue. 

 

“Of the total project cost of Rs 46,000 crore, MSRDC has indicated civil cost of Rs 24,000 crore; contingencies, financing charges and IDC of Rs 6,000 crore; node development cost of Rs 2,500 crore; utility shifting cost of Rs 500 crore; and land acquisition cost of Rs 13,000 crore,” he said. 

The tender for construction will be issued after acquisition of 60 per cent of the land, which will require another 75 days. The project will need 20,820 hectares of land, 8,520 hectares for the expressway, 1,500 hectares for amenities and 10,800 hectares for development nodes. Of the total land acquired, 17,499 hectares will be farmland, 2,922 hectares fallow land and 399 hectares forest land.

This is the first project in Maharashtra to adopt land pooling, which involves notification of intent, accepting objections of landowners, inquiring about their objections, solving their issues and finalising the land pool prior to obtaining the consent of the holder. So far, over 500 meetings with villagers have been held. 

"Landowners will be provided developed land for residential or commercial purpose,'' Mopalwar said.

The expressway will have a 5-km stretch in each revenue division for military aircraft landing in emergency. This is on the lines of the recently inaugurated Lucknow-Agra expressway built by the Uttar Pradesh government on which an air force jet landed last month.

MSRDC has so far implemented projects worth Rs 7,753.58 crore, including the Mumbai-Pune expressway, the Worli-Bandra sea link and 55 flyovers in Mumbai. It is implementing projects worth Rs 827 crore and has proposed projects worth Rs 33,270 crore apart from the Mumbai-Nagpur expressway.  

The new projects include expansion of the Mumbai-Pune expressway (Rs 5,000 crore), a Versova-Bandra sea link (Rs 7,500 crore) and a 104 km Pune eastern ring road (Rs 9,000 crore).