Road Network of the State of Maharashtra
Maharashtra has the largest road network in the country and is connected with its six neighbouring states through seventeen national highways.
MSRTC, Maharashtra State Road Transport Corporation offers road transport in public sector and has been operational since 1948; when the first bus ran between Pune and Ahmednagar. Now completing 70 years since its inception, this state transport bus service has about 16,000 buses managed by 12,000 employees to transport more than 70 lakh people daily.
ST has come a long way in these 70 years of service; Starting from wooden bodied buses with 15 coir seats to steel and then aluminium bodies and 54 cushioned seats. Apart from carrying people, farmers use it to transport their goods to cities. It also transports postal mail and takes care of distribution of medicine, newspapers and also lunch boxes true to their motto `jithe rasta, tithe ST' i.e. 'there is a ST bus for every road'. MSRTC bus stands are scattered all over Maharashtra, thereby facilitating convenient and easy roadways connectivity.
Maharashtra State Road Development Corporation Limited (MSRDC)
The roles and responsibilities of MSRDC include planning, designing, widening, development, building and maintenance of the roads, highways, bridges and flyovers. It has successfully completed the Suman Nagar Flyover, Mumbai-Pune Expressway, Panvel Bypass Project, and Barfiwala Flyover etc.
Maharashtra has the largest network of highways in India with 18 national highways. The main national highways in Maharashtra are: NH 3, NH 50, NH 69, NH 7, NH 17, NH 211, NH 204, NH 4, NH 8, NH 9, NH 13, NH 16, NH 4B, NH 6, and NH 222. One can imagine the vastness of highways in this state by the fact that the total length of highways in the state of Maharashtra exceeds 3700 kms; whereas the total road network exceeds 265,000 km.
Almost 98% villages of the state are connected via the highways and modern roads in Maharashtra. National Highways 3, 4, 6, 8, 9, 13, 16 and 17 link Mumbai to the neighbouring states of Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Karnataka, Delhi and the rest of the country. The other major cities inside Maharashtra such as, Amravati, Washim, Ahmadnagar, Akola, and Jalgaon are also interlinked via these highways.
Major Expressways and Highways
Mumbai- Pune Expressway
The Yeshwantrao Chavan Mumbai-Pune Expressway is India's first fully operational access controlled toll road. This six lane high speed road is the best and the most important expressway, which links the financial capital Mumbai to the cultural capital of the state, Pune. It is surrounded by scenic beauty and hill stations, which makes travelling on this route a pleasurable experience. The distance from Andheri in Mumbai to Deccan in Pune is around 168 km, but the drive through the Expressway takes less than three hours, with all the intercity crossroads and traffic lights interruptions.
Nagpur-Aurangabad-Mumbai Highway Nagpur-Aurangabad-Mumbai Highway connects two major Maharashtra cities Nagpur & Aurangabad with the capital Mumbai. Travelling through NH6 makes it possible to save around 65 km distance and the total travel time reduces to one-and-half hours approximately.
Eastern Express Highway Eastern Express Highway or EEH is about 24km long; part of NH3, it is a major road of Mumbai metropolitan area. Eastern Express Highway is a six-lane highway with as many as 12 flyovers.
Extending from CST Mumbai to Thane, it becomes Dr Ambedkar Road beyond Sion in central Mumbai. It is an extremely busy road with loads of rush hour traffic. Around 50,000 cars use this road every day. It is maintained under the Mumbai Urban Infrastructure Project.
Sion Panvel Expressway Sion Panvel Expressway is a 25 km long under construction road in Mumbai metropolitan area, which connects Sion in central Mumbai to Panvel in the eastern suburban area via Navi Mumbai. An important and one of the busiest roads in Mumbai, it links the financial capital to the National Highway 4. It is a much wider (12 lane) highway starting from BARC Junction Sion till Kalamboli Junction Panvel suburban area.
Western Express Highway Western Express Highway or WEH is an eight to ten lane arterial road of Mumbai. It is a 26km long highway from Bandra suburban area in south Mumbai to Mira-Dahisar in north Mumbai. This important road for the commuters of Mumbai, becomes NH8 in north to reach Delhi. It also passes through the Sahar International Airport.
Yedshi-Latur-Nanded Highway Part of the Marathwada Integrated Road Development Project, Yedshi-Latur-Nanded Highway is a 240km long expressway in the state of Maharashtra linking two major cities Latur and Nanded and further extending to National Highway 9. The highway has a potential to further save more than 1.5 hrs of travel time between the city of Latur and Mumbai, under the new four lane expansion plan.
Eastern Freeway,Mumbai This 16.8 km long controlled-access freeway, connects P D'Mello Road in South Mumbai to Eastern Express Highway at Ghatkopar. Funded by Government of India through the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM) and built by Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA), daily traffic on Eastern Expressway is of around 35,000 vehicles.
Mumbai Nashik Expressway This was India's largest BOT (Build-operate-transfer) road project; 150 km (93 mi) long Expressway connecting Mumbai to Nashik.
Mumbai-Vadodara Expressway This Expressway is part of the Golden Quadrilateral Project by NHAI and would connect Mumbai to Vadodara in Gujarat.
Western Freeway (Proposed) This 29 km transportation project involves the construction of many bridges over the Arabian Sea; connecting Marine Drive in South Mumbai to Kandivli in the north. The aim is to reduce traffic congestion in Mumbai, and its suburbs.
Bandra-Worli Sea Link BWSL is officially called Rajiv Gandhi Sea Link; this bridge connects Bandra in Western Mumbai to Worli in south Mumbai. It is a part of the proposed Western Freeway that aims to connect Western suburbs to Nariman Point which is a major business district of Mumbai. This bridge constructed by Hindustan Construction Company and commissioned by the Maharashtra State Road Development Corporation (MSRDC) cost Rs 1600 crore. Initially on 30 June, 2009, four lanes were opened for public and on 24 March 2010 all the eight lanes were opened reducing the average peak hour travel time between Bandra and Worli from 60-90 minutes to 20-30 minutes.
Last Updated on : May 31, 2022
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