Back to the Samruddhi Mahamarg for all answers

Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde and Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis speak to the media during their visit to pay tribute to Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh founders Keshav Baliram Hedgewar and Madhav Sadashivrao Golwalkar, in Nagpur on Thursday. Pic/ANI

Announcing the blue print for the all round upliftment of backward Vidarbha, Chief Minister Eknath Shinde and Deputy CM Devendra Fadnavis hailed the newly-opened Balasaheb Thackeray Samruddhi Mahamarg as a harbinger of development in the eastern region, in particular and Marathwada and rest of Maharashtra in general, on Thursday.

The first leg of the greenfield super communication expressway between Shirdi and Nagpur was opened three weeks ago. While replying on debates initiated by the ruling and Opposition members, Shinde and Fadnavis replied back-to-back, to lay a futuristic picture of the state. The R55,000 crore expressway, scheduled to reach Thane by next year, came in handy for the duo.

Fadnavis said the expressway completed a new ecosystem for the MIHAN project in Nagpur. "The transportation time has been reduced drastically between ports in the west and Nagpur. Work on a new airport will begin soon in Nagpur where a cargo hub will be enhanced further by a new railway corridor. It will truly be a multimodal hub that will boost import and export," he said.

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Along the expressway, commercial nodes and logistic parks have been planned. The agro, textile and mining sectors which lacked quick connectivity will get a further push, said Fadnavis, who also outlined a plan for replacing old thermal power stations with super critical ones. To back up power production, the distribution and transmission will be upgraded. He said orange processing units to be run by Cola Cola and Patanjali and farm-to-fashion textile park will come up soon near Nagpur and Amravati. As the water resources minister, Fadnavis said the irrigation projects were ramped up to improve farming.

Shinde followed Fadnavis. He said a strong Vidarbha meant a strong Maharashtra because the region has everything that would boost the state and local economy. The Samruddhi Mahamarg is the way forward to Vidarbha and other regions, he said, promising that the eastern regions mining potential was vast. Earlier, Fadnavis had said that a new mining policy was in the pipeline.

Shinde said major projects in naxal-hit Gadchiroli will be taken forward at any cost. "We don't fear anyone. We will finish them," he said. He announced that an expert committee under Tata Sons chairman N Chandrashekharan will advise the government on economic and other affairs.

About Samruddhi Mahamarg, the CM said it has opened new opportunities for tourism. It provides access to religious places, wild life sites (like tiger projects) and monuments like Lonar crater.

Opposition leader Ajit Pawar countered the CM saying the people in western Vidarbha felt ignored because of Nagpur-centric development. "Other districts too want the government to look after them," he said, adding that the Mumbai-Goa highway also needed the same attention from the state government.