The freshly built Mumbai-Nagpur Super Communication Expressway (Samruddhi Mahamarg) was tested out on Sunday by Chief Minister Eknath Shinde and Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis.

On the 520 km-long section between Nagpur and Shirdi constructed during phase 1 of the project, the deputy CM personally operated the vehicle.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will partially inaugurate the project on December 11. The expressway is a pet project of Fadnavis and was initiated during his tenure as CM while the BJP-Shiv Sena coalition was in office.

The Mumbai-Nagpur Major Connectivity Expressway is the official name of the Hindu Hrudaysamrat Balasaheb Thackeray Maharashtra Samruddhi Mahamarg. The Covid-19 epidemic caused a delay in launching the project’s first phase, which was supposed to happen earlier this year.

The 701-km-long route is projected to provide development chances in the drought-prone Marathwada and Vidarbha regions, which are also strongholds for the BJP. Between Shirdi and Mumbai, the final 181 km of phase 2 of the project would terminate in Thane’s Vadpe neighbourhood in the Bhiwandi district and will be completed by 2024, according to authorities.

The 23.5-km Mumbai-Nashik highway (NH 3) between Vadpe and Majiwada in Thane will also be renovated since the expressway will be utilised by commercial vehicles travelling to Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust (JNPT) from Nagpur.

The Samruddhi Mahamarg, when fully operational, will cut the distance between Nagpur and Mumbai by six hours. At the moment, commuters travel 800 kilometres in 16 hours from Mumbai to Nagpur on NH 3 and NH 6 respectively.

The 701 km, eight-lane Mumbai-Nagpur Samruddhi Expressway, which is being built by the Maharashtra State Road Development Corporation (MSRDC) and is billed as the fastest in the nation and allows for speeds of up to 150 kph, is being constructed. An estimated Rs 55,000 crore would go into the project.

The expressway will cross 24 interchanges, 38 bridges longer than 30 metres, and 283 bridges less than 30 metres as it travels through 14 districts, 6 talukas, and 392 villages. The entire project, which began in January 2019, was supposed to be finished by September 2022. However, the Covid-19 epidemic and the sluggish progress of the project caused a delay.