New Pune-Bengaluru Expressway Announced At Rs 40,000 Crore Budget: Per Km, Rs 50 Crore Will Be Spent!

Nobody can deny the importance of roads, highways, expressways in building a nation. They connect the hinterlands with the rest of the world, transfer goods produced for exports, and help to bring human resources to the places of manufacturing.

With Golden Quadrilateral, the four major metro cities, Mumbai, Delhi, Kolkata, and Chennai were connected. Bharatmala Project, launched in 2017, is an attempt to strengthen the network of roads even further. In the second phase of the same, new projects are being launched. One such project is the new Pune – Bengaluru highway.

Union Minister Nitin Gadkari announces a new Pune-Bengaluru Highway

Recently, Union Minister for Road Transport and Highways Nitin Gadkari announced a new greenfield highway connecting Pune with Bangalore. The cost of the project is expected to be Rs 40,000 crore. According to the minister, the work on the new highway would begin in the next six months.

It is noteworthy that, the new national highway will be developed parallel to the existing Pune-Bangalore highway.

The minister was speaking at the foundation stone laying ceremony for road development works in Kolhapur, Sangli, and Satara districts.

Minister desires not to repeat mistakes of the past.

Speaking after laying the foundation stone of a highway project in Karad, Gadkari asked elected representatives and officials from Satara, Kolhapur, and Sangli to sit together with NHAI officials and solve the flooding issue national highways due to heavy rains.

In July, floods around the Kolhapur district led to an unprecedented closure of the crucial Mumbai-Bengaluru highway for almost four days.

The traffic on the national highway had come to a halt after the Panchaganga river swelled, after the heavy rains in the area.

According to locals, this was the first time the highway has been shut for three days in a row. At least 2,000 trucks and 1,000 private vehicles were stranded on both sides of the road: from Satara to Kolhapur and from Belgavi to Kolhapur.

So by asking officials to come up with a solution for the existing highway and not repeating the mistake in case of the proposed new highway, the minister is being prudent in the planning for tasks ahead.