The development activities will be a continuous process for us.
S K Survase,
How do you view the road infrastructure developments happening in Maharashtra?
In Maharashtra, currently road infrastructure development is happening at a rapid pace. Earlier, the development activities were not so fast and spontaneous, but now it has geared up like anything. Many expressways, national highways along with bridges and flyovers are being constructed. These developments are boosting industrial, agricultural and tourism developments of the state. All major cities in Maharashtra are developing very fast, while the development of Mumbai has gone up further. All these cities are getting connected with Airports, Ports, Railways and Highways. The recently opened MTHL has given additional dimension to the hinterland connectivity with Mumbai.
How is MSRDC contributing to the growth of Maharashtra’s roads and highways development?
As of now, MSRDC is on its peak with around Rs 3 lakh crore worth projects under construction, in tendering process and in planning stage. That way, MSRDC is contributing significantly to the infrastructure development and economic growth of Maharashtra, in turn contributing to the overall growth of the country.
Can you give us an overview of the major road and highway projects under construction and in planning stage?
MSRDC is constructing Expressways and National Highways across Maharashtra. MSRDC is catering to more than 40 National Highway projects which are under construction. The 600 km length of Maharashtra Samruddhi Mahamarg is already completed and is opened to traffic. The major portion of the balance 101 km length is on the verge of completion and is targeted to be completed by July 2024.
In addition, we have taken up the Mumbai-Pune Expressway Missing Link project which is aimed for completion by this year end. The tunneling work and viaduct portion is completed and the cable stayed bridge work is in progress. We are also partnering with NHAI in the construction of last leg of Vadodara-Mumbai Expressway Spur project joining with Maharashtra Samruddhi Expressway. The MSRDC is also constructing the linking project of Mumbai-Delhi Expressway with JNPT. This will be an important link from the perspective of connecting northern hinterland with JNPT.
The Bandra-Versova sea link project is also under execution and is aimed at completion by December 2026. Once this is complete, the western connectivity right from Nariman Point to Versova will be established. The MMRDA is executing road connectivity project from Versova to Virar, which is also in advanced stage. Thus, the entire connectivity from Nariman Point to Virar will form the western part of the Mumbai Ring Road. Similarly, we have taken up the Virar-Alibaug connectivity project which will form the eastern part of Mumbai Ring Road. Once this project is operational, the entire circle of Mumbai Ring Road will become a reality. The Virar-Alibaug project is currently under tendering stage and is very likely to start its construction this year itself.
The MSRDC has also taken up another ring road project in Pune for which land acquisition and tendering process are going on and the work is likely to start by coming June. Apart from this, we are also building Jalna-Nanded highway as an extended arm project connecting to Maharashtra Samruddhi Mahamarg. So, Maharashtra Samruddhi Expressway will act as spinal cord of Maharashtra and there will be a number of such branches of connecting Expressways/highways.
Another project coming up is the Nagpur-Goa Expressway. This project, in combination with the Nagpur-Mumbai Samruddhi Expressway and the Mumbai-Goa Expressway project (under planning stage) will form the Golden Triangle of Maharashtra. The DPR of these projects is in progress and we are aiming to complete all DPR and tendering processes by this year and start construction work by early next year.
What are the steps taken towards improving quality and safety in highway construction?
We have constituted a team of expert engineers who look after each and every aspect of quality on a daily basis, which will enhance the overall quality control of the project. For example, in Maharashtra Samruddhi Expressway project, there were 16 packages and each package was controlled in terms of quality, quantity, design and every other aspect by these teams of 25-30 engineers. We have the network of experts, consultants, engineers etc and these packages will be divided among them for effectively managing the overall processes. We follow international standards in project executions and quality control.
What are the new technologies and practices being adopted to improve the quality and sustainability in highway construction?
During construction, we face some challenges of different aspects. In order to overcome the challenges, we have adopted different technologies also. In Ahmednagar district, during the construction of Samruddhi Expressway, we used the technology of Ultra high-performance concrete having lighter weight structures to create longer span bridge to avoid foundation in canal without any shutdown of canal. It was also cost and time effective. Another technology used was of making graviloft technology retaining walls on black cotton soil, without need of any reinforcement steel.
Another innovation made was the construction of viaduct of 1.80 km length precast and per stressed concrete. Every part was precasted in cast yard. Only foundations were excavated at site location and even the piers were precasted, saving cost and time. So, we used precast technology to construct this part of the project which minimised the disturbance to the local people also. We adopted different technologies during the construction of this Expressway and we will continue to adopt such technologies for sustainability in construction. We also used slag and fly ash up to 30 percent in our projects as part of sustainable construction practices.
We are creating milestones in road construction industry and setting new trends. We have designed the Samruddhi Expressway project with design speed of 150 km per hour, vetted by IIT Bombay, which is also for the first time in India against conventional design speed of 120 km per hour. We have also constructed longer tunnel of 8 km on Samruddhi Expressway which has world-class structure with high pressure water mist system for effective fire-fighting and all world class facilities. The Missing Link tunnel is also 9 km long with the provisions of advanced world-class technology. Almost 2 km part of the tunnel is passing under Lonavala Lake at a varying depth from 150 m to 200 m.
What is your vision for Maharashtra’s roads and highways development in future?
MSRDC is very ambitious in the road infrastructure development for Maharashtra. MSRDC is the leading agency of Maharashtra to work on highways and expressways. We have a planned grid of about 5,000 km for Maharashtra, which comprises the Maharashtra Samruddhi Expressway, Nagpur-Goa Expressway, Mumbai-Goa Expressway, Pune-Nashik Expressway, Jalna-Nanded Expressway and Nagpur-Gondia Expressway, Nagpur-Chandrapur, Bhandara-Gadchiroli Expressway (an extension of Maharashtra Samruddhi Expressway), etc to cater to the eastern part of Maharashtra and other parts of Maharashtra. We are also exploring the need of connectivity to Surjagarh mines and so on, as a part of the planned grid. Our aim is to connect each and every district of Maharashtra to mainstream by 6 hours.
Also, we are laying a gas pipeline of about 700 km along the Samruddhi Expressway through GAIL of which about 85 percent work is already completed. So, every district connecting on this route will get direct gas connection. Similarly, for export of iron ore, there are future plans of laying pipeline along the Samruddhi Expressway from adjoining mining areas to reach liquid iron ore to JN Port. Two dry ports at Sindi and Jalna along this route are also connected to JN Port through Samruddhi Mahamarg. A lot of similar developments are happening and this will continue to happen on the Samruddhi Expressway. It is not that once the expressway is operational, the task is complete. The development activities will be a continuous process for us.
