Union Minister for Road Transport and Highways Nitin Gadkari on Saturday said Hyderabad, located around 500 km from Nagpur, will be reachable by road in just three-and-a-half hours within the next couple of years as work on the expressway linking the two cities gathers pace.
Speaking about ongoing infrastructure projects, Gadkari said more than half of the Nagpur-Hyderabad expressway has already been completed. He added that the Maharashtra Government has approved a six-lane highway connecting Nagpur and Chandrapur, while a ring road around Chandrapur will provide seamless connectivity to Hyderabad.
“Work on several other road projects extending towards Mancherial in Telangana and further into Andhra Pradesh is also at an advanced stage,” he said.
Gadkari further said that the Samruddhi Expressway’s extension towards Gondia will improve connectivity to Chhattisgarh, with a spur road planned towards Raipur. A new highway connecting Nagpur and Jabalpur is also under construction.
Highlighting the economic potential of eastern Maharashtra, Gadkari said Gadchiroli is emerging as a major steel hub and will be linked through a network of highways to ports in Andhra Pradesh on the eastern coast.
“These projects will provide faster access to seaports and effectively bring Nagpur closer to the eastern coastline than Mumbai on the west coast,” he said.
Referring to national highway development, Gadkari said the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) has undertaken tunnel projects worth nearly Rs 3 lakh crore across the country. He described the Zojila Tunnel as a landmark achievement and one of the world’s longest road tunnels.
Recalling a visit to the project site, Gadkari said the helicopter pilot had remarked that flying directly ahead could take them across the border, necessitating a longer route to reach the location.
He added that several tunnel projects are currently underway in Jammu and Kashmir, Uttarakhand and other remote and strategically important regions.
On Nagpur’s future development, Gadkari said the city is set for a major transformation, with substantial investments planned through NHAI-supported projects. He said the focus would be on improving public infrastructure and creating citizen-centric amenities.
Among the proposed initiatives are 25 affordable swimming pools across the city to ensure access for economically weaker sections. He also said that within the next five years, Nagpur would have enough playground infrastructure to accommodate nearly one lakh people at a time, while efforts would be made to improve accessibility to markets and public spaces.
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