Mumbai: Maharashtra has created an enviable network of roads, railways, Metro rail and air transport in the state, touching some of the remotest corners to boost the state’s progress and development, said the Economic Survey 2022-2023.
Till March 2022, the total road length maintained by the PWD and Zilla Parishads stood at nearly 3.25 lakh km.
The showpiece project, Hindu HridaySamrat Balasaheb Thackeray eight-lane, 701 km Mumbai-Nagpur Super Expressway’s first phase from Nagpur to Nashik (520 km) was commissioned partly in December 2022, while 90 per cent work on the remaining stretch has been completed till January 2023.
Work on the Rs 12,721 crore Mumbai Coastal Road Project (south) is progressing rapidly with 70 per cent work completed till January 2023, the Economic Survey noted.
Till January 2023, the state had 433 lakh vehicles (134/km) against 409 lakh vehicles (128/km) last year.
After the government’s new incentive-based Maharashtra Electric Vehicles Policy 2021, the number of electric vehicles registered in the state till December 2022 stood at 1,92,997.
Till September 2022, the Maharashtra State Road Transport Corporation operated an average of 12,904 buses daily, traversing 43.81 lakh km and carrying over 3.60 million passengers.
At the same time, the Metro rail network in the state is also growing in leaps and bounds, including in Mumbai, Nagpur, Pune, Thane and other cities.
The Mumbai Metro netwok’s Line 2A and Line 7 were commissioned two months ago, and coming soon are the Colaba-SEEPZ Line 3, Wadala-Ghatkopar-Thane-Kasarvadavali Line 4, Kasarvadavali-Gaimukh Line 4A, Thane-Bhiwandi-Kalyan Line 5, Swami Samarth Nagar-Vikhroli Line 6, Dahisar East-Mira Bhayandar-Andheri Line 9, Gaimukh-Mira Road Shivaji Chowk Line 10, Wadala-CMST Line 11 and Kalyan-Taloja Line 12.
In Pune, the PCMC-Phugewadi Corridor I and Vanaz-Garware College Corridor II have become operational, while Nagpur’s Khapri-Automotive Square (NS) and Lokmanya Nagar-Prajapati Nagar (EW) corridors have also been commissioned.
The work on the upcoming Rs 14,179 crore Navi Mumbai International Airport is proceeding at a fast pace, as also the Rs 17,843 crore Mumbai Trans Harbour Link project.
On the air transport front, in 2021-2022, passenger traffic from domestic and international airports in the state was 245.65 lakh and 32.12 lakh, respectively, an increase over 2020-2021 figures of 133.96 lakh and 12.23 lakh, respectively.
During 2020-2021, the domestic and international cargo handled by airports in the state was 1.87 lakh tonne and 4.41 lakh tonne, respectively, which increased in 2021-2022 to 2.51 lakh tonne and 5.57 lakh tonne, respectively.
On the sea ports, during 2021-2022, the total cargo handled by major and non-major ports was 1,884 lakh tonne compared to 1,579 lakh tonne in 2020-2021.
(IANS)
