The 701-km-long Samruddhi Mahamarg, officially named the Hindu Hrudaysamrat Balasaheb Thackeray Maharashtra Samruddhi Mahamarg,will be fully operational today. The final 76-km stretch from Igatpuri in Nashik to Amane in Thane will be inaugurated, completing the high-speed expressway envisioned during Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis’s first term in 2016.

Designed as a greenfield expressway, the six-lane (expandable to eight) access-controlled corridor significantly reduces travel time between Nagpur and Mumbai to seven hours. While popularly referred to as the Mumbai-Nagpur Expressway, the route begins from Amane in Thane district, approximately 63 km from Mantralaya, Mumbai’s administrative hub.

The Rs 55,335-crore project involved acquiring over 8,800 hectares of land from nearly 24,000 farmers across 10 districts. The first phase was inaugurated in December 2022. The newly completed Igatpuri-Amane stretch is particularly critical, halving travel time between these points from over 90 minutes to just 40 minutes, and eliminating the need to navigate the challenging Kasara Ghat on the Mumbai-Nashik Highway.

The expressway offers world-class connectivity and is expected to be a transformative boost for the state’s logistics and transportation infrastructure.