Mumbai, March 9 (IANS) Maharashtra has announced a boost to various big and small infrastructure projects including a web of Metro Rail network for the Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR), Deputy Chief Minister and Finance Minister Devendra Fadnavis said, tabling the state Budget 2023-2024.
Putting the state onto the national $5 trillion economy ambition with a contribution of $1 trillion, and boosting the state share from 14.2 per cent to 20 per cent in the national GDP, Fadnavis announced major infrastructure development plans.
While 80 per cent of the work on the showpiece Hindu HridaySamrat Balasaheb Thackeray Mumbai-Nagpur Super Expressway is complete, it will be extended from Sindhkhedaraja to Shegaon (Buldhana) as a four-lane highway.
The technical-feasibility reports of the 760 km Nagpur-Goa Expressway is being prepared, and it will link major tourism and pilgrimage regions in the state, passing through six districts — Hingoli, Nanded, Parbhani, Beed, Latur and Dharashiv — at a cost of Rs 86,300 crore.
The revised cost of Rs 6,695 crore has been cleared for the ‘missing link’ between Khopoli-Khandala on the Mumbai Pune Expressway, while work on the Rs 27,000 crore Pune Ring Road project is proceeding rapidly.
The detailed project report of the proposed 126-km long Virar (Palghar) Alibaug (Raigad) multimodal corridor likely to cost Rs 40,000 crore is on and work has begun on the Raigad-Sindhudurg coastal highway at a cost of Rs 9,573 crore.
Under the Asian Development Bank (ADB) project Phase II, 468 km road works shall be taken up at a cost of Rs 4,000 crore, and under the Hybrid Annuity Part II, 7,500 km roads will be taken up at a cost of Rs 90,000 crore.
In the next fiscal (2023-2024) Rs 14,225 crore shall be spent on improving 10,125 km roads and 1,203 bridges and cross-drainages, while Rs 3,000 crore shall go to amping up 4,500 km of district and village roads.
Under the Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana-III, 6,500 km roads have been given to Maharashtra of which work on 5,500 km is underway using modern technology.
The Railways have provided Rs 13,539 crore for various projects, like the Ahmednagar-Beed-Parli Vaijnath, Wardha-Yavatmal-Nanded, Wadsa-Desaiganj-Gadchiroli, Nagpur-Nagbhid are being completed, as also the Kalyan-Murbad line, and the proposed Nashik-Pune semi-high speed rail project.
The state will share Rs 452 crore for the 84 km new broad gauge line Solapur-Tuljapur-Dharashiv and share 50 per cent cost for four new lines — Nanded-Bidar, Phaltan-Pandharpur, Khamgaon-Jalna and Varora-Kampa.
In order to close down 2,500 railway crossings in the state, flyovers and subways are being built under the Setu Bandhan scheme in which 100 works are on with 25 flyovers to be commissioned in two months and another 25 flyovers to be ready in a year.
The Thane-Vasai Creeks shall be linked by water transport with Mumbai with the construction of a jetty at Radio Club in Colaba for the benefit of passengers opting for waterway travel.
–IANS
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