Mumbai–Aurangabad–Nagpur highway


The Mumbai–Aurangabad–Nagpur highway is a Maharashtra State Highway, but is built using National Highway standards. The highway connects the capital city of Mumbai to Nagpur in less than the distance covered by the NH 6, the older route. This road saves 65 km distance between the two cities and the travel time of nearly one-and-half hours.

Construction

The project was approved on 23 Dec 1999, to be built in two phases. The total cost for this road was projected to be Rs 46,000 crore. Major development started in late 2002. In Phase I, the existing road was expanded to a four lane road. In Phase II, this road was expanded to a six-lane road with multiple service roads, tunnels, and flyovers. The road was completed at the end of 2015.

Standards and operations

Although this is a state highway, it is built as per National Highway standards. The Maharashtra government is trying to operate this road through a private party for 30 years to recover its cost.

Route

The total length of this highway is 700 km, from Mumbai to Nagpur, excluding the portions of NH 3 and NH 7 it covers at Mumbai-Kalyan-Ghoti and Nagpur-Butibori sectors respectively. This highway also covers portions of the MSHs at other areas.
This highway roughly covers the regions in Maharashtra as,
The highway bypasses several cities and towns in Maharashtra state currently serviced by NH 6, though it passes through their districts, and is easily accessible by most. The cities bypassed are Nasik, Dhule, Jalgaon, Akola and Amravati.