Former Maharashtra chief minister Uddhav Thackeray on Sunday claimed the first phase of the Samruddhi Expressway was ready a long time ago and it was supposed to be inaugurated on May 1 this year but just two days before the inauguration a related construction had collapsed.

"I don't know if it was a deliberate act,'' Thackeray said. Earlier in the day, Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated the first phase of the Nagpur-Mumbai Samruddhi Expressway that connects Nagpur and the temple town of Shirdi in Ahmednagar district.