• Source:JND
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The Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MoRTH) is now set to connect Jalgaon to the Nagpur-Mumbai Samruddhi Expressway, as per a report by Pune Pulse. The decision to extend connectivity to Jalgaon was taken in a high-level meeting attended by Union Minister Nitin Gadkari and Maharashtra CM Devendra Fadnavis.

Once connected, the travel time between Jalgaon and Mumbai will be slashed to five hours. As part of the initiative, Jalgaon will be linked to Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar, which already has access to the Samruddhi Mahamarg.

Jalgaon to Sambhajinagar linkage

At present, it takes two to two-and-a-half hours to travel from Jalgaon to Sambhajinagar via Ajintha and Sillod. With the proposed upgrade, this time will be reduced to only one hour.

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As it takes four hours to travel from Sambhajinagar to Mumbai via the expressway, the total time from Jalgaon to Mumbai will be around 5 hours.

Apart from Gadkari and Fadnavis, state Public Works Minister Shivrendra Singh Raje Bhosale, Water Resources Minister Girish Mahajan, MP Smita Wagh, and MLAs Devyani Pharande and Mangesh Chavan, among others, were present at the meeting that focused on enhancing connectivity between Chalisgaon and Kannad.

To ease traffic coingestion at existing highway

Currently, people travel from Jalgaon to Mumbai via an existing highway through Dhule and Nashik. However, the route is heavily used, and traffic leads to slow movement. As a result, it takes around 8 hours to travel between the two cities at present.

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To make the proposed route a reality, a 12.75 km tunnel through Autram Ghat has been approved between Chalisgaon and Kannad. The tunnel will be completed at a cost of around Rs 2,600 crore.

The proposed route will directly connect Jalgaon to the Samruddhi Expressway, opening greater access to both Nagpur and Mumbai. Samruddhi Mahamarg, recently completed, is 701 km long and connects Mumbai to Nagpur. The e-way is built at a cost of Rs 55,335 crore.