A week before Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurates India’s most modern road in Maharashtra next week, the bonhomie between Chief Minister Eknath Shinde and Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis was seen on Sunday as the duo undertook a test drive.
Modi will inaugurate the 701-km-long Nagpur-Mumbai Super Communication Expressway - the country’s longest Greenfield road project on December 11.
The Hindu Hrudaysamrat Balasaheb Thackeray Maharashtra Samruddhi Mahamarg - as it is formally known - is one of the most ambitious road projects ever undertaken in India - a six-lane access controlled highway.
Fadnavis, who holds half a dozen portfolios, was seen at the wheel.
“This is the highway of development,” Fadnavis said as he was asked questions on being in the driver’s seat.
However, Shinde said that he had taken a test drive earlier in March. “I have already taken a test drive,” Shinde said, adding: “It will be a game changer project.”
This is the second Expressway in the state after the Mumbai-Pune Expressway or E-Way, formally known as Yashwantrao Chavan Expressway.
Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis said that Modi would inaugurate the project on December 11.
Modi will inaugurate the 500-km stretch from Nagpur to Shirdi, which has been completed, and the remaining stretch will be completed in six months, which will connect Shirdi to Thane-Mumbai.
The 701 km Nagpur-Mumbai Super Communication Expressway was launched when Fadnavis was the Chief Minister between 2014-19 when he headed the BJP-Shiv Sena government.
Shinde had overseen the implementation as the Urban Development Minister in the Fadnavis-government and later in the Uddhav Thackeray-led Maha Vikas Aghadi government.
Reacting to the development, NCP national spokesperson Clyde Crasto, in lighter vein, said: “Everyone knows who is in the driver’s seat….in Maharashtra”.
The Expressway passes through ten districts Nagpur, Wardha, Amravati, Washim, Buldhana, Aurangabad, Jalna, Ahmednagar, Nashik and Thane.