20.1.17

Mumbai - Nagpur Expressway update


In a significant boost to Maharashtra's ambitious Mumbai-Nagpur super-communication highway plan, the MSRDC, its implementing agency , received consent for 40% of the land required from project-affected persons (PAPs), including farmers and government authorities, earlier this week.
Planned for completion in seven phases by 2020, chief minister Devendra Fadnavis had recently announced enhanced compensation to PAPs; the Rs.46,000 crore project is considered among the most expensive by any state government.

The 30% assurance for land came from Thane's villages of Phugale, Vashala Budruk and Tokarkhad. This development, in turn, almost meets the land requirement for the project for Thane; 67 km of the new road will pass through the district. The total land to be pooled for the highway from the district is 832 hectares, out of which 250 hectares belongs to the forest department, 100 hectares to the government and the rest to private individuals. Against the 14 to 16-hour travel time by the three existing roads and 11 hours by the Duranto Express train, the proposed 710 km Mumbai-Nagpur super-communication highway will span the distance in six hours at 150 kmph and eight hours at 100 kmph. The expected initial one-way toll is Rs.700. The eight-lane highway will have parallel runways at four places for contingencies. The road will also have anti-crash net all along.

To keep costs low, the road will not pass through crowded areas, towns, cities or existing roads where land cost is expected to be high.

The state wants the farmers whose land will have to be acquired to become partners in the project. Against the one-time compensation, which is expected to be 3.75 times the ready-reckoner (RR) rate (roughly Rs.17-18 lakh over the Rs.3 lakh RR price) for one acre, MSRDC officials said the partnership would earn them a developed piece of land measuring over 10,000 square feet close to business towns to be developed along the highway , whose value could touch Rs.1 crore once the road becomes operational.These plots will come up in the new industrial growth centres (with different themes such as IT, industry , agriculture etc) to be set up at major junctions along the alignment of the highway .

If they participate in the land-pooling model, there will not be any change in land ownership records.

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