The Mumbai-Delhi Expressway project is 70% complete, while the stalled Mumbai-Ahmedabad Bullet Train project will be hastened. In addition, The Nagpur-Mumbai SuperExpressway and other significant projects which would help to enhance Maharashtra's economic growth will be pushed. With more than two-thirds of the work on the Rs 100,000 crore Mumbai-Delhi Expressway completed, Union Transport and Highways Minister Nitin Gadkari said that the distance between the nation's capital and its financial centre will be travelled in just 12 hours. 


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"It's my dream to establish seamless connectivity from Nariman Point in Mumbai to Delhi through a network of coastal roads and sea-link till Virar and beyond with a project outlay of Rs 50,000 crore," said Gadkari, addressing a conclave organised by the CII here. Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis said that the Bullet Train project had been given a push after the new government headed by Chief Minister Eknath Shinde took over in Maharashtra.


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"Owing to certain reasons, Maharashtra languished while Gujarat worked swiftly on the Bullet Train. But we shall cope up, not just as a Bullet Train, but also as a beginning of a new era in transportation," he said.


Shinde said the state government is focussing to create 15 industrial corridors in the state and promised to work with the Centre to create "a pro-industry eco-system."


Gadkari unravelled plans for direct road connections from Mumbai to Bengaluru through the Westerly Bypass on Mumbai-Pune Expressway and the Pune Ring Road, besides a new Pune-Aurangabad road alignment to cut the travel time to just 2 hours, plus a connection between Surat-Nashik-Ahmednagar-Solapur which would divert 50 percent of south-bound road traffic from north India and reduce air pollution in Thane, Mumbai, and Pune.


He urged Shinde and Fadnavis to take up the land acquisition work and also waive off GST on various raw materials needed for these projects. Describing Maharashtra as the "growth engine" of the Indian economy, he said the state would have to contribute majorly in all fields like agriculture, industry, and services to help India realize the dream of becoming a $5 Trillion economy.


With inputs from IANS