MSRDC Rules Out Realigning Pune-Nashik Corridor Along Rail Route Citing Costs And Technical Constraints: Report

Plans to align the proposed Pune-Nashik industrial corridor with the upcoming semi-high-speed railway line have been firmly rejected by the Maharashtra State Road Development Corporation (MSRDC), which has flagged both technical and financial obstacles, Hindustan Times reported.

The state government had instructed MSRDC to examine whether shifting the expressway closer to the rail route could ease tensions among farmers and landowners whose properties fall along the initially proposed 213 km highway.

The intention was to minimise land acquisition disputes by leveraging the rail corridor under development.

However, MSRDC’s detailed assessment, submitted last week, concluded that the two projects have fundamentally distinct objectives and cannot realistically share space.

“The rail project is meant for fast intercity travel, while the industrial corridor is designed to connect multiple towns, villages, and industrial zones. Regulatory buffer zones around the railway make it nearly impossible to lay an expressway alongside. The cost of such co-location would also be prohibitively high,” a senior MSRDC official was quoted as saying.

Under the original alignment sanctioned last year, the corridor comprises a 135 km stretch from Pune to Shirdi, a further 52 km linking Shirdi to Niphad where it connects to the Surat-Chennai Expressway and an 18 km segment leading to Nashik.

While the realignment proposal aimed to address farmers’ grievances, particularly in agricultural regions, MSRDC maintains that adhering to the approved path is the only practical way forward.

The final call now rests with the state government, which has yet to authorise the next stage of the project.

The Pune-Nashik corridor is a crucial segment of MSRDC’s ambitious 4,200 km network designed to boost connectivity across Maharashtra.

Once operational, it is projected to slash travel time between the two cities from five hours to just two and a half.

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