Mumbai: In a significant achievement, Maharashtra's longest and widest road tunnel saw the light of day on the upcoming "Hindu Hridaysamrat Balasaheb Thackeray Maharashtra Samruddhi Mahamarg", or the Greenfield project of Mumbai-Nagpur Super Communication Expressway, officials said here on Tuesday.
A huge roar of jubiliation rent the air after the final blast on the tunnel, marking the culmination of hard labour under the ever-looming threat of the Covid-19 pandemic and lockdown, by a team of engineers and workers of Afcons Infrastructure Ltd, Shapoorji Pallonji Group.
"The tunnel is 7.78 kms long, in two tubes with a total width of 35 metres (17.50 metres in each tube) located between Igatpuri (Nashik) and Vashala (Thane), in a thickly forested hilly region," AIL Project Manager and Leader Sekhar Das told IANS.
The road tunnel is part of the 13.10 kms long Package 14 handled by AIL for the Maharashtra State Road Development Corporation (MSRDC) and was completed three months ahead of schedule.
The 701 km-long east-west expressway linking the state capital Mumbai with its second capital Nagpur, is expected to be partially operational by September 2021 and fully completed by May 2022, slashing the travel time between the two cities by half from the existing 16 hours.
The tunnel breakthrough was witnessed by MSRDC Vice-Chairman and Managing Director Radheshyam Mopalwar and other top officers, besides AIL officials on what is stated to be the fastest moving package on the entire expressway.
Attacking the minister, Congress leader and media coordinator of former chief minister Kamal Nath, Narendra Saluja, said:
"The minister is a shameless person. The parents union went to meet him for relief, but he showed an irresponsible attitude. He told the parents if you want to die, then die, we don't care."
The BJP has defended the minister. BJP spokesperson Rajpal Singh Sisodia said that the parents union had met the school education minister regarding school fees.
"The minister asked them to wait and told them that he will get back after studying the issue. Then parents started saying, should we die. Then he said why die, I will solve the problem after studying the issue."
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