At the district planning committee meeting held in Thane on January 5, 2019, BJP MLA from Murbad (Thane) Kisan Kathore, alleged that some revenue officials were involved in irregularities in the acquisition of land in the district and payment of compensation to farmers and villagers affected by the Samruddhi Mahamarg project. Taking a serious note of the charges, Thane guardian minister Eknath Shinde asked collector Rajesh Narvekar, to conduct a probe into it.

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The Mumbai-Nagpur Super Communication Expressway, also known as the Maharashtra Samruddhi Mahamarg, which will pass through Nagpur, Buldhana, Amravati, Wardha, Washim, Thane, Aurangabad, Akola, Bhiwandi and Nashik districts, is facing opposition from farmers in some pockets along its 700-km route, especially in Nashik district. Meanwhile, Shinde also approved a Rs 20-crore annual plan for the Thane district, for 2019-20.

Marathwada to be biggest beneficiary of Samruddhi Corridor: Maharashtra CM

Aurangabad and Jalna districts in the Marathwada region, would be ‘magnets of development’ due to the Nagpur-Mumbai Samruddhi Mahamarg, Maharashtra chief minister Devendra Fadnavis has said

September 18, 2018: “Marathwada region is going to be the biggest beneficiary of the Nagpur-Mumbai Super Communication Expressway, especially Aurangabad and Jalna districts. These districts will be the magnets of development,” Maharashtra chief minister Devendra Fadnavis said, on September 17, 2018. The Rs 49,250-crore Nagpur-Mumbai Samruddhi Mahamarg, alternatively referred to as a Super Communication Expressway, will be 700 kilometres long and will pass through 392 villages, spread over 11 districts.

“The development of Aurangabad Industrial City (AURIC), as part of the Delhi-Mumbai Industrial Corridor (DMIC), is in progress with a total investment of Rs 11,000 crores, with an estimated job creation for three lakh people,” Fadnavis added. AURIC, formerly called the Shendra-Bidkin industrial area, located near Aurangabad, is a planned and greenfield smart industrial city being developed across 10,000 acres, as part of the DMIC.

Speaking further on government initiatives to help Marathwada, Fadnavis said that the region was home to about 35 per cent of farm ponds, created across the state in the last two years. These ponds in Marathwada had a capacity to irrigate 60,000 hectares of agricultural land, he said.

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The Maharashtra CM said that the proposed Marathwada water grid project, would see the linking of 14 reservoirs for enhanced irrigation. “Green cover in the Marathwada region is very limited. The state government’s mass sapling plantation drive has realised into five crore plantations, as against the target of two crore this year,” Fadnavis said.

Fadnavis was speaking at the Marathwada Liberation Day organised at Aurangabad, about 335 kilometres from Mumbai. The arid region was part of the Hyderabad Nizamate, at the time of independence. A violent struggle ensued after the Nizam turned down a plea by the local populace, for separating Marathwada from Hyderabad. The region finally got separated from the Nizamate on September 17, 1948.

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