Cabinet approves 6-lane access controlled Greenfield high speed national highway in Maharashtra

Infrastructure

The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs on March 19 approved the construction of six-lane access controlled national highway starting from JNPA Port (Pagote) to Chowk (29.219 km) in Maharashtra.

The project will be developed on Build, Operate and Transfer (BOT) mode at a total capital cost of Rs 4,500.62 crore.

The new corridor will start from at JNPA port (NH 348)  near Pagote village and ends at Mumbai-Pune Highway (NH-48) while also linking Mumbai Pune Expressway and Mumbai Goa National highway (NH-66).

The new corridor will traverse the Uran-Chirner Highway (starting as Amra Marg from Navi Mumbai), Goa Highway, and Pune Expressway, offering entry and exit points along the route.

The project will boost connectivity by reducing travel time from Mumbai to the highway leading to Goa to just 20-30 minutes from Mumbai Trans Harbour Bridge (Atal Setu), the government said in a statement.

"The new 6 lane green field project corridor will lead to better port connectivity help in safe and efficient freight movement. The project will open new avenues of growth, development and prosperity in developing regions in and around Mumbai and Pune," the government said.

The initial 30km stretch is expected to be completed within 30 months, with work orders likely to be issued soon and construction anticipated to begin within seven months.

NHAI regional manager Anshumali Shrivastav had last week said that the corridor will streamline traffic for over 10,000 vehicles, including multi-axle container trucks, that currently use various disconnected stretches of highways. This will decongest roads and improve travel times.

Currently, it takes 2-3 hours for vehicles to move from JNPA Port to the arterial Golden Quadrilateral (GQ) section of NH-48 and Mumbai – Pune Expressway due to heavy congestion in urban areas like Palaspe Phata, D-Point, Kalamboli junction, Panvel with traffic ~1.8 Lakh PCU/day. After the operationalization of Navi Mumbai airport in 2025, the need for direct connectivity is expected to increase further.