The Maharashtra State Road Development Corporation (MSRDC) has announced plans to open the remaining stretch of the Samruddhi Mahamarg in November. The Samruddhi Mahamarg is a 701 km expressway connecting Nagpur to Mumbai, with 625 km currently open from Nagpur to Igatpuri town.

The under-construction portion is a 76 km stretch between Igatpuri and Amane village in Thane, which will connect to Mumbai. This section is expected to be partially opened by August this year. “We have completed close to 90 percent of the work, with the 1.8 km Khardi bridge on the Kasara ghat section being our biggest challenge. The 8 km tunnel is complete. While the expressway is six lanes wide, it will temporarily narrow to four lanes at the Khardi bridge,” said an MSRDC official.

“The entire expressway has three lanes on each side. Traffic to Mumbai will start flowing by August, with only the bridge stretch having a four-lane road, with two lanes operational in each direction. This is a temporary arrangement, and we plan to open the remaining lanes of the bridge for traffic by November, thereby completing the entire expressway as a six-lane project,” he added.

Formally known as the ‘Hindu Hrudaysamrat Balasaheb Thackeray Maharashtra Samruddhi Mahamarg,’ this expressway connects Nagpur, the winter capital, with Mumbai, the financial hub, via Thane district, spanning a total length of 701 km. Currently, it is India\’s longest expressway, passing through ten key districts and indirectly connecting 14 others, providing seamless connectivity between the economically important western and eastern regions of Maharashtra.

Dubbed the ‘Samruddhi Mahamarg’ (Prosperity Corridor), it also links major economic hubs such as Jawaharlal Nehru Port in Mumbai, the country’s largest container port, and the upcoming international airport in Navi Mumbai. The Maharashtra government has proposed developing additional connectors or access-controlled expressways to link major districts with the Samruddhi Mahamarg.

In this regard, the MSRDC has taken up the development of the Jalna-Nanded Expressway, approximately 179.85 km long. The corporation has also issued bids for constructing two more access-controlled expressways: Nagpur-Gondia and Nagpur-Chandrapur. These three expressways will connect with the Mumbai-Nagpur Samruddhi Mahamarg, enhancing road travel connectivity between Mumbai and the remote parts of the state.