Maharashtra: Pace of Samruddhi Expressway work slows as labourers return home

The pace of the Samruddhi Expressway work has slowed as most of the project workers have returned home. The authorities have raised concern over the project delay and the deadline has been extended.

Nasik: It has been a tough phase for the ambitious Samruddhi Expressway project for the past three months. The pace of 750-km first linear project of the country has slowed down after workers of the project have returned home.

The pace of the Samruddhi Expressway, also called as 'Nagpur-Mumbai Super Communication', which passes through 10 districts of the state, has slowed down as most of the workers have returned home citing corona scare. The state government even gave permission for the construction work of the project amid lockdown but still the project has failed to gain momentum.

According to reports, the construction work of Samruddhi Expressway is partially stuck as more than half of the workers engaged in the project have returned homes. Seeing the delay, the concerned authorities have decided to extend the deadline of the project.

Anil Kumar Gaikwad, Joint Director, MSRDC, said, "More than 50 per cent of our employees have returned home. We are not able to start work in a full-fledged manner. The responsibility lies with the contractor to arrange the workers."

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Asked about the delay in the project completion, he stated, "We have given instructions to the contractors to speed up the work by arranging more workers. But due to the corona scare, workers are not willing to return from their native places. Project completion is delayed but we expect it to complete it soon."

Most of the workers of the project are from Bihar, Jharkhand and Odisha and the authorities even arranged transport to bring most of them to Mumbai.

Gaikwad said that the work has not completely stopped but the pace has reduced by about 25%.

Undertaken by the Maharashtra State Road Development Corporation(MSRDC), the project aims to complete 700-km expressway by the end of 2021. For the past two months, the work was completely shut and even after the Uddhav-led govt gave permission to resume the work in May, there has not been a significant improvement in the work pace.