[LazyDriver]

Some news on Samrudhdhi Mahamarg.
Shirdi-Igatpuri stretch to be opened from tomorrow.

[vivek95]

Originally Posted by vivek95

Thanks, waiting for your update I have an off from my hospital duty on 26th itself. I have been waiting for Bharvir--Shirdi stretch to open up so that I can try it and have Shirdi darshan at the same time.

Sorry for off topic -- On 26th May, I am keen about another most awaited dream road that is slated to open up in Mumbai - the much hyped 22 km long sealink -- MTHL ( Mumbai Transharbour Link). It's all over the news. But I think only the sealink per se (16.5kms) will be thrown open for traffic, may be the connecting ramps to Eastern Freeway are yet under construction and a few months away for entire 22 kms to become operational. Will try and see if I can wander around whole day driving, trying Bharvir-Shirdi as well as Mumbai Transharbour link

Edit :- MTHL will be open for public from November. On May 24th, a symbolic drive will be carried out by MTHL engineers, a bus for the same will be flagged off by CM. Some earlier news articles were misleading, my bad.

Hello everyone

The inauguration of all new phase 2 Samruddhi Mahamarg from Bharvir to Shirdi
(80 kms) did happen today afternoon. After confirming the same on internet, I did undertake a casual drive from Mumbai to Shirdi exploring the Bharvir--Shirdi stretch of Expressway in the evening and currently taking a pit stop at Shirdi. Will take darshan and head back to Mumbai by midnight.

The phase 2 is again truly world class and leaves you speechless.Road surface is impeccably smooth. The stretch from Bharvir to Sinnar interchange is highly scenic running along the beautiful Sahyadris/western ghats, the Bhandardara range in particular. Can't wait for monsoons to arrive to drive on this stretch again and enjoy the surreal views.

So, unlike phase 1, phase 2 is not monotonous. There are decent curves and gradients from Bharvir to Sinnar that make up for an enjoyable drive. Between Sinnar and Shirdi it's super straight again. By the way, in all probability the Bharvir to Igatpuri stretch won't be completed by July end as projected and the entire stretch till Mumbai for sure won't be ready by even March 2024, take it from me.

That apart, whatever we have ready right now -- What an awesome road Maharashtra can boast of - truly superb, marvellous !! Waiting for Bharvir to Mumbai to open up by next year end. Some pics














By the way, Mumbai--Nasik NH3 is presently awesome as well, supersmooth well marked 4 lane/6 lane. I took Mumbai--NH3--Ghoti--Bharvir--Samruddhi Mahamarg--Shirdi route. There are proper signages near Bharvir on Ghoti--Sinnar road to get into Expressway. The Ghoti--Bharvir road is good as well, 2 lane concrete

[AlphaKiloPapa]

Hi All ! Any idea if there are any EV chargers on the expressway ? Or if there are any upcoming chargers on the way. Because if a detour is required then there is no point of using the expressway in a Nexon EV.

[411scrambler]

I recently drove Aurangabad Amravati on the highway
The security is zero I saw a two wheeler guy in the 80 lane and a trax guy going wrong way in the overtake lane there are sharp cuts on the road that are causing the tire bursts
Attached images for the same

Tweeted the same to Nitin Gadkari, CMO Maharashtra RTO
But no reply

[Santo_the_bong]

Originally Posted by AlphaKiloPapa

Hi All ! Any idea if there are any EV chargers on the expressway ? Or if there are any upcoming chargers on the way. Because if a detour is required then there is no point of using the expressway in a Nexon EV.

Hi.
I just drove the Nagpur to Nashik stretch of the road this Sunday (May 28, 2023). I can confirm there is no EV charger on the entire stretch.

I have stopped at every filling station on the route, mostly to stretch my legs and avoid getting drowsy. Didn't see a single EV charger anywhere.

[Stribog]

An update.

We did Mumbai > Shirdi > Nagpur > Pench and return last week.

Mumbai to Gotti Sinnar bypass is either atrocious (horribly pitted roads that will knock your teeth off if you grit your teeth), or normal 2 lane with median but very high truck traffic roads.

It took me 4.5 hrs to do the Mumbai to Shirdi run. 4.5 hrs for 220 kms.

The Shirdi Nagpur stretch on the e-way is sheer driving pleasure. Keep the following in mind

1) a few expansion joints are done really badly and cause jerks in the car (and come up rather unexpectedly)

2) Only 2 petrol pumps each side the entire trip, with no lay-byes. I saw many vehicles halted under the many animal overpasses. Families were eating, taking bio breaks and trucks were simply halted and taking some rest. I do wish the Govt had created some lay-bye areas, had some proper public toilets enroute etc. The road infra is almost world class, but the ancillary infra is non existent.

3) Unlike the Mumbai Pune e-way, there are no speed cams anywhere, very minimal (non existent) policing so the speed limit is more a suggestion rather than a hard stop. I prefer to put on the cruise at 117 and stay in the centre lane but ymmv. I do wish there was better enforcement though.

4) Most (99%) of trucks follow lane discipline, stick to the leftmost lane or centre lane. It's horrible car drivers who drive at 50kmph on the "overtaking lane". In general though I found that the overwhelming majority followed both speed limits and lane discipline. Took me 4.5 hrs to cover 500 kms. I must have used the gear exactly zero times (except when I stopped near the petrol pumps), the road truly is that good.

5) the Nagpur Pench stretch is not an eway but a stunning road. It is on the periphery of the Forest reserve, green and nice gentle curves, with a butter smooth tarmac and minimal traffic. Took us 60 mins to do 90 kms.

Overall this is a must drive stretch, esp when package 14 is done and the e-way runs from Thane to Nagpur.

On the return it's the same thing but....the exit after the e-way near Igatpuri has a road condition from something out of a wartorn dystopia. The 30 odd kms before you connect to the main highway makes you regret ever taking a car and wish we had flying cars already.

[AlphaKiloPapa]

Originally Posted by Santo_the_bong

Hi.
I just drove the Nagpur to Nashik stretch of the road this Sunday (May 28, 2023). I can confirm there is no EV charger on the entire stretch.

I have stopped at every filling station on the route, mostly to stretch my legs and avoid getting drowsy. Didn't see a single EV charger anywhere.

Sad to know that On one hand government is promoting the use of EV's and on the other hand there is no charging infrastructure on the expressway even after 6 months of inauguration.

[Maverick5490]

Did the Thane>Jabalpur>Bandhavgarh stretch on 25th May following is the review

25th May: Thane>Jabalpur: 1045 kms

Thane > Ghoti/Sinnar

Started at 4 am, crossing the Bhiwandi-Kalyan stretch is a pain even at those times as lot of road works are going on plus slow moving trucks. Post Kalyan crossing roads improve and are decent till the Ghoti right turn. From there till the beginning of the Expressway, roads are a pains. We missed the new section by a day as it was inaugurated on 26th May. Fueled up at the beginning of the expressway and continued forwards.

Samruddhi Expressway>Jabalpur

Started at exact 8 am from the Sinnar entry and exited the eway at 12:10 pm with one bio break. Speeds maintained at 120 and was treat to see what an engineering marvel the highway is. The journey was effortless with visibility for miles. Although we were on the highway around noon, the tire temperatures were in the range of 55 to 57 degrees and pressure went up by only 2 psi, nothing to worry about. Saw a few crashed cars around medians and monkeys coming across the highway, need to be attentive throughout the journey. Did not fuel up on the eway, but facilities are minimal and better to carry your own snacks and food items.

Next was the Road from eway exit to Jabalpur a distance of 280 kms. The Nagpur Jabalpur Highway is another marvel of an road. Completely divided 4 lane highway with a mix of concrete and tar road. But the roads are of such good quality that the car really glides and having minimal traffic, driving is a breeze. Bonus is the middle section crossing the Pench forest where the road is covered on both sides and has mix of fast straights and tight corners.

Had a leisurely lunch at Villa 44, lovely place and food and continued towards Jabalpur where again we encountered beautiful roads. Since we were reaching before time in Jabalpur, spent some time at the Bargi Dam which is on the way. Did a night halt post 1045 kms and neither the car nor passengers felt any tiredness or stress.

26th May: Jabalpur>Bandhavgarh:180 kms

Started leisurely at 9 am and reached around 12 pm. Following gmaps took us through few narrow roads, but all in all good roads. However post entering the Badhavgarh forest, the road is single lane tarmac and one needs to go off road for oncoming vehicles. This is compensated by the beautiful forest and the excitement grows once we start going in and see safari Gypsy's. We had booked our stay at Lemontree wildlife resort and is highly recommended as it is close to the Tala gate, inside the forest and very well appointed room with great service and food.

We did a total of 6 safaris and had a great sighting of the tigers.

29th May - Bandhavgarh> Nagpur: 450 kms

Did a morning safari on 29th and left from the hotel by 12:30 pm. Post exiting Bandhavgarh forest, followed gmaps and had set Nagpur as the target for the night. It is easily doable as the roads are again fast and amazing, especially once you near Nagpur the tarmac is fantastic. Watchout for cows and intersections as random people will cross without warning. Also there are not many food options on the route so you need to plan the meals and rest stops accordingly. Did a night halt at Travotel hotel near the airport.

30th May - Nagpur>Thane: 750 kms

Left at 9 am post breakfast and topped up fuel before the eway, fuel tank showed a range of 790 kms in my Ford Freestyle's 35 litre tank. Started the eway around 9.20 am and completed the complete highway with a bio break. One important thing to note is that if your fuel tank is below half, better to fill up at the second pump. We did not as the tank was slightly above half and Gmaps was showing the Sinnar exit. When we reached there the Bharvir section was open and continued straight. There is absolutely no facility on this stretch so you need to have atleast 120 kms of fuel range to cross the section. Even Gmaps does not show this route and this can lead to some anxiety, however there are proper boards marking the distances and exits to Nashik, Pune and Mumbai. Exited the fabulous eway at 2.45 pm with a tank range of 40 kms and joined the Ghoti section which is again a pain to drive on. Filled up on the main highway and had late lunch at Karizma Dhaba in Igatpuri, again highly recommended. Post that the drive to Thane was nothing great and once you near Bhiwandi there is lot of traffic and congestion. Reached home at 7.30 pm.

Thanks to the Samruddhi eway lot of destinations have now become easily accessible and eagerly waiting for the complete section to be ready.

[RM Motorsports]

Trucks, buses cutting lanes to be blacklisted on E-ways

State transport commissioner Vivek Bhimanwar on Sunday announced that from Monday, heavy goods trucks, buses and other vehicles will be blacklisted on Samruddhi Mahamarg and other Expressways if found involved in lane-cutting and obstructing smaller vehicles. This has become a serious issue as small cars are unable to drive properly with several trucks using the rightmost lanes. Overtaking them from the left side or trying to overtake in between two heavy vehicles have led to crashes recently," Bhimanwar said.

https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/.../100579107.cms

[Rhinox~Cnu]

Samruddhi Mahamarg: Recently, I travelled on this express highway on 10’th May 2023 from Shirdi to Aurangabad and felt like Hyderabad ORR.

The design is good that no toll plaza will obstruct the drive on highway, the toll booths are present at the Entry and Exit points. They set speed limit as 120 Kmph for cars and extreme right lane is for overtaking. I made entry at Shirdi and took Exit-17 for Aurangabad city, travelled for about 85-90 Kms in less than an hour and paid Rs. 179 as toll. Overall, the drive is excellent and should take care of tyre pressure while travelling on such concreate roads.

[Zippy_wheels]

I did this strech (Aurangabad to Nagpur) and back, recently. The previous updates from other forum members helped a lot. I wanted to put in some suggestions for future travellers.

> Eat before you get on this expressway. You wont find anything to eat.
>Fill fuel before entering, the few fuel stations are overcrowded and blocked by trucks and if you are doing 100-120 you will croos it before realizing that you missed the entry point (fuel pumps are on service lanes) and you are not allowed to enter from opposite end of the service lane.
> Fill nitrogen, while coming back I did not get nitrogen anywhere in the 50 kms leading up to toll plaza in nagpur, and the first petrol pump did not have electricity so nitrogen was not available.
> I found it easier to travel during the day, compared to night. The only reason was I started feeling sleepy due to highway hypnosis that news reports are referring to.
> You can use cruise control for the most part but be on the lookout for idiots - car driving at 90 on the overtaking lane, trucks and busses driving at 60 in the middle lane or sometimes even the overtaking lane, trucks trying to overtake each other at speeds of 60.
> I did not encounter any animals and I saw there is barracading work going on in the outer periphery of the road, but be vigilant.
> apply breaks early - if you are going at speeds of 120, you dont realize how much farther the vehicle travels before it slows down. The broad roads and the desire to maintain high speeds/cruise control sometimes makes us reluctant to break.

[vharihar]

Read about a very tragic bus accident on MNE with very high fatalities, very sad. The cause was claimed (by surviving driver) to be tyre burst due to which bus flipped, fuel tank ruptured, and caught fire. Need to ascertain if that was the cause or driver dozed off (highway hypnosis is a real danger).

Tyre bursts on our increasingly long expwys (MNE, DME, Trans Haryana Expwy, etc) will increase in frequency, because air inside tyres gets hot at high speeds, and even more so for long drives.

I feel all commercial vehicles should mandatorily have a speed governor set at max 80 kmph. The IQ and driving etiquette of Indian drivers, fitness of commercial vehicles, level of compliance (to norms) of commercial vehicles, etc are all such that they are death traps on high speed corridors if driven faster than 80 kmph.

The US stuck with 88 kmph speed limit for all vehicles till mid-90's, despite the fact that their hwy system was already 30 years mature by that time, and they were already a mature motoring nation.

We're just starting to blossom. We surely need a 80 kmph speed limit for commercial vehicles, and 110 kmph speed limit on cars. Along with strict enforcement of speeds, fitness checks, DL checks, tyre tread depth checks, etc. Else it's asking for trouble.

People need to realise, it's not a race track. It's a public amenity, you've got to drive responsibly. Drive at sane speeds, relax and enjoy the drive.

If you see a vehicle ahead of you doing reasonable speeds, be content to be behind it (with sufficient headway). You DON'T necessarily have to overtake it. There'll always be someone ahead of you. Take it easy and enjoy the drive. That's the way the developed world and mature motoring nations drive.

[niteshm]

I travelled from Nagpur to Pune on 16th July. I exited the expressway from Sinnar and connected with Nashik Pune highway. The drive completed in 9-10 hrs.
I did make few observations:
1. The tarred section near bridge joints have developed pot holes. Hitting a pot-hole at 110 kmph on the highway is dangerous. Be careful.
2. Saw one Baleno accident with both fornt airbags deployed, no details about passengers.
3. First few petrol pumps are crowded due to parked transport trucks.
4. Washrooms are not good, they are not maintained properly.
5. The expressway is scenic due to greenery on the both sides.
6. Some section of the highway towards Shirdi is very rough.
7. Beware of the stray dogs and monkeys crossing the expressway.

Before embarking on the journey, check tyres and fill recommended tyre pressure.

[GJ01]

https://www.ndtv.com/india-news/15-k...ndtv_topscroll


Quoting from the article:
"Seventeen workers were crushed to death late last night when a crane collapsed on them at a construction site in Thane's Shahapur in Maharashtra, police said.
The crane fell on a group of workers who were engaged in the construction of the Samruddhi Expressway, killing them instantly. Three injured workers were rushed to a nearby hospital, where they are being treated for their injuries.

The workers were operating a girder launching machine which is a specialised crane that can move large steel beams or girders that are used in the construction of highways, rail bridges and form the foundation for large buildings. "

It is unclear why the crane collapsed - was it due to rain ?

[itwasntme]

What a terrible accident! Cannot even believe the sheer momentum of that 700 ton machine + the girder itself falling down with/on those poor people. May they RIP.

I hope MoRTH launches an independent enquiry into what went wrong in this case, when the same machine had launched so many more girders on the same stretch.

Also hope it does not significantly delay the completion of the Expressway itself.