₹20,000 crore approved for land acquisition & realignment of Nagpur-Goa expressway
The state cabinet took the decision despite strong resistance from farmers, especially those from western Maharashtra districts. During the meeting, two ministers—medical education minister Hasan Mushrif and state health minister Prakash Abitkar—expressed their reservations about taking the project ahead despite this opposition. Both are from Kolhapur district.
The ministers suggested that the state government hold discussions with the affected farmers and try to find a way out of the situation. 'They told the cabinet that the Mahayuti coalition had already faced a backlash from farmers during the Lok Sabha elections,' revealed a minister privy to the development. 'This could be repeated in the upcoming polls if the state government decides to forcibly implement the project.'
Taking this into consideration, the cabinet approved partial alignment of the project. 'It has approved the alignment connecting Pavnar, which falls in Wardha district, to Sangli covering more than 700 km,' revealed a senior official from the public works department (PWD).
The cabinet also decided to scrap the alignment going through Shirol, Karvir, Hatkanangale, Kagal, Bhudargad and Ajara talukas of Kolhapur district. 'Chief minister Devendra Fadnavis directed the Maharashtra State Road Development Corporation (MSRDC) to prepare an alternate alignment for the remaining part of the project connecting Sangli with Sindhudurg district,' said another PWD official. 'Once this is done, the CM and the two deputy chief ministers will hold consultations with all the stakeholders—local MLAs and ministers among others—before taking a final decision on the alignment.'
Deputy chief minister Ajit Pawar too confirmed that the state government was planning to change the alignment. 'When the ministers expressed their concern regarding resistance from farmers and requested Fadnavis to hear them out, he assured them that there was no reason for them to continue with the project if people were opposing it,' Pawar told reporters. 'The CM also assured them that he would try to change the alignment.'
The state is powering ahead with this expressway despite opposition from farmers, as it requires private agricultural land on a large scale. In the run-up to the assembly elections last year, the then chief minister Eknath Shinde had promised that the project would not be imposed on the farmers but the government changed its position after coming to power with an unprecedented majority.
The 802.592-km-long expressway will connect 12 districts: Wardha, Yavatmal, Hingoli, Nanded, Parbhani, Beed, Latur, Dharashiv, Solapur, Sangli, Kolhapur and Sindhudurg. It will later be linked to the Mumbai-Goa highway close to the Goa border. The expressway will reduce travel time between Nagpur and Goa from 18 to eight hours.
The expressway has also been positioned as a religious and cultural corridor aimed at enhancing pilgrimage connectivity across Vidarbha, Marathwada and western Maharashtra, as it will connect three major pilgrimage sites—the Mahalaxmi temple (Kolhapur), Tulja Bhavani Temple (Dharashiv) and Renuka Mata Shakti Peeth Temple (Nanded).
The project will be executed by the Maharashtra State Road Development Corporation (MSRDC).
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Indian Express
13 minutes ago
- Indian Express
Maharashtra government not interested in regulating people's food choices: Fadnavis
The Maharashtra government was not interested in regulating people's food choices, Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis said on Wednesday and described as 'unnecessary' the raging controversy over closure of abattoirs and meat shops in some cities on Independence Day. He feigned ignorance about the existence of a 37-year-old government resolution (GR) allowing closure of abattoirs on certain days, including Independence Day, and noted municipal corporations take such decisions on their own. Some civic bodies in Maharashtra have ordered the closure of slaughterhouses and shops selling meat on August 15, triggering a controversy. 'The state government is not interested in (knowing) who eats what. We have many other issues to address,' Fadnavis told reporters here. 'Some people even went ahead and called vegetarian people as impotent. This nonsense should stop at once,' he said. Asked about some municipal corporations ordering closure of abattoir on August 15, the CM, 'The state never took such a decision. A government resolution (GR) was issued in August 1988. Municipal corporations take such decisions (ordering closure of slaughterhouses) on their own. Even I was not aware of such a GR existing for such a long period.' 'I also learned about it (GR) through the media. Similar decisions were taken when (Shiv Sena UBT leader) Uddhav Thackeray was chief minister of Maharashtra (November 2019-June 22),' he opined. Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar on Tuesday expressed displeasure over some civic bodies ordering the closure of slaughterhouses and shops selling meat on August 15, saying it was wrong to impose such a ban. Such types of restrictions are generally imposed considering faith-related sensitivities on occasions like Ashadhi Ekadashi, Mahashivratri, Mahavir Jayanti, Pawar said. 'It is wrong to impose such a ban. In major cities, people of different castes and religions reside. If it is an emotional issue, then people accept it (ban) for a day. But if you clamp such orders on Maharashtra Day, Independence Day and Republic Day, then it is difficult,' Pawar told reporters. Civic bodies of Kalyan Dombivali in Thane district near Mumbai, Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar and Nagpur have issued orders directing the closure of meat shops on August 15. There are reports that the Malegaon Municipal Corporation in Nashik district, too, has issued such an order.
The Hindu
13 minutes ago
- The Hindu
Manickam Tagore hits out at Jagan for his remarks against Rahul Gandhi on ‘vote-chori' campaign
All India Congress Committee (AICC) in-charge for Andhra Pradesh affairs Manickam Tagore on Wednesday hit out at YSRCP president Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy for 'making baseless allegations against Congress leader Rahul Gandhi' in reference to his 'vote-chori campaign'. 'Mr. Jagan Mohan Reddy should understand that the Leader of the Opposition in Lok Sabha, Rahul Gandhi, is not fighting for the Congress party alone. We are fighting to protect India's democracy,' he said in a video clip posted on X. 'Rahul ji has not surrendered to Amit Shah, nor is he afraid of Narendra Modi, like Mr. Jagan. We are fighting a bigger battle against the Modi-Shah duo,' he said. Mr. Manickam Tagore said the 'vote-chori' issue was clear now. It was about how votes were manipulated in each Assembly segment of around 39-48 Lok Sabha seats, allegedly at the behest of Home Minister Amit Shah with the help of the former Chief Election Commissioner, Rajiv Kumar, and present CEC Gyanesh Kumar. Describing the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls as an 'institutionalised chori,' Mr. Manickam Tagore said the Election Commission was 'openly colluding' with the BJP to carry out this 'theft' with the objective of taking away the voting rights of the poor. Turning the heat on the YSRCP chief, Mr. Manickam Tagore said, instead of appreciating the efforts of Mr. Rahul Gandhi to save democracy, it was shameful that Mr. Jagan Mohan Reddy was coming up with 'imaginary stories of Congress-TDP collusion in Andhra Pradesh.' He said people of Andhra Pradesh knew that 'Naidu-Pawan, Modi-Shah and Jagan' were one team. 'If Mr. Jagan Mohan Reddy has the courage to fight the vote-chori by BJP at the Centre, he should join the march proposed to be taken out by the Congress party on August 14 in Vijayawada,' he challenged.
News18
20 minutes ago
- News18
Bihar SIR row: Electoral rolls cant remain static, bound for revision, says SC
New Delhi, Aug 13 (PTI) The Supreme Court on Wednesday said electoral rolls cannot 'remain static" and were bound to be revised as it disagreed with the submission that special intensive revision (SIR) of voter list in poll-bound Bihar had no basis in law and ought to be quashed. A bench of Justices Surya Kant and Joymalya Bagchi was informed by NGO Association of Democratic Reforms that the exercise should not be allowed to be carried out pan-India. Aside from the NGO, leaders of opposition parties including Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) and the Congress have challenged the electoral roll revision drive of the Election Commission of India (ECI) in Bihar. Senior advocate Gopal Sankaranarayanan, appearing for the NGO, said the ECI notification on SIR ought to be set aside for want of legal basis and never being contemplated in law. He, therefore, contended it couldn't be allowed to go on. The ECI can never conduct such an exercise since inception and it is being done for the first time in history and if allowed to happen only God knows where it will end, he added. 'By that logic special intensive revision can never be done. One-time exercise which is done is only for the original electoral roll. To our mind, the electoral roll can never be static," the bench noted. 'There is bound to be revision," the top court said, 'otherwise, how will the poll panel delete the names of those who are dead, migrated or shifted to other constituencies?" The bench went on to tell Sankaranarayanan that the ECI had residual power to conduct such an exercise as it deemed fit. It referred to Section 21(3) of the Representation of the Peoples Act (RP Act), which says 'the Election Commission may at any time, for reasons to be recorded, direct a special revision of the electoral roll for any constituency or part of a constituency in such manner as it may think fit." Justice Bagchi further asked Sankaranarayanan, 'When the primary legislation says 'in such manner as deemed fit' but the subordinate legislation does not… will it not give a residual discretion to ECI to dovetail the procedure not completely in ignorance of rules but some more additives than what the rules prescribe to deal with the peculiar requirement of a special revision?" Sankaranarayanan submitted that the provision only allowed revision of the electoral roll for 'any constituency" or 'for part of a constituency" and the ECI couldn't wipeout the rolls of an entire state for fresh inclusion. 'Actually, it is a battle between a constitutional right and a constitutional power," Justice Bagchi said. The residuary power of the ECI flows from Article 324 of the Constitution and the RP Act mentions both summary revision and special revision and the ECI in the instant case has only added the word 'intensive", that all, the judge noted. Advocate Prashant Bhushan, also appearing for the NGO, alleged the ECI played 'mischief" and removed the search feature from the draft roll and the list of 65 lakh people whose names were deleted for being dead, migrated or shifted to other constituencies. 'This happened just a day after Congress leader Rahul Gandhi did a press conference pointing out over lakh people as fake voters," he added, arguing an ordinary person was denied the right to search their name on the draft roll whether dead or alive or migrated to another place. Justice Kant said he was unaware of any such press conference but when it comes to the Registration of Electors Rule of 1960, Section 10 mandates the election commission to publish a copy of the draft roll at the office in the constituency. 'They have to publish the draft roll at the office in the constituency. That's a minimum threshold under the law. However, we would have liked it if it was published on the website for wider publicity," Justice Bagchi said. Senior advocate Rakesh Dwivedi, appearing for the ECI, said the petitioners claimed the rural population of Bihar was not tech savvy and now they were talking about the inability of the same people in searching online. During the hearing, the bench also told senior advocate Abhishek Singhvi, appearing for petitioners, that the 11 documents required to be submitted by an elector for Bihar's SIR as opposed to seven documents in summary revision conducted previously showed the exercise was 'voter friendly". It said despite petitioners' arguments that non-acceptance of Aadhaar was exclusionary, it appeared the large number of documents was 'actually inclusionary". 'The number of documents in summary revision conducted earlier in the state was seven and in SIR it is 11, which shows it is voter friendly. We understand your arguments that non-acceptance of Aadhaar is exclusionary but a high number of documents is actually inclusionary," the bench said. The hearing will continue on Thursday. On August 12, the top court said inclusion and exclusion of citizens or non-citizens from the electoral rolls was within the remit of the Election Commission and backed its stand to not accept Aadhaar and voter cards as conclusive proof of citizenship in the SIR of voters' list in Bihar. PTI MNL MNL AMK AMK (This story has not been edited by News18 staff and is published from a syndicated news agency feed - PTI) view comments First Published: August 13, 2025, 19:15 IST News agency-feeds Bihar SIR row: Electoral rolls cant remain static, bound for revision, says SC Disclaimer: Comments reflect users' views, not News18's. Please keep discussions respectful and constructive. Abusive, defamatory, or illegal comments will be removed. News18 may disable any comment at its discretion. By posting, you agree to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy.
