State clears Rs2,353cr as loan to acquire land for Nagpur-Chandrapur e-way

Nagpur: The state govt has cleared over Rs2,353 crore to be raised as loan to acquire land for the 204 km Nagpur-Chandrapur access-controlled expressway. This includes Rs1,470 crore as the principal amount and an interest outgo of Rs860 crore. The expressway will be an extension of Samruddhi Mahamarg, which connects Nagpur to Mumbai.A new alignment of 204 kms was approved on account of the presence of a tiger corridor and coal mines in the earlier course. The govt resolution for raising the loan to buy land on the revised route was issued on Friday.
The acquisition will be carried out by the Maharashtra State Road Development Corporation (MSRDC), which is also building the expressway. Sources said MSRDC will borrow the amount from the Housing and Urban Development Corporation (HUDCO), which is the preferred lending partner due to easy availability of funds through it. HUDCO has earlier provided MSRDC long-term funding to acquire land for road projects.Besides Chandrapur, MSRDC is also constructing extensions of the Samruddhi Mahamarg connecting Bhandara, Gondia and Gadchiroli. The total debt to fund land acquistion for these projects comes to around Rs4,200 crore, said a senior official in MSRDC.The Chandrapur road would start from the Seldoh interchange of the Samruddhi Mahamarg and run till Navaegaon (Mor) on the Durg-Hyderabad highway, covering a distance of 192 km. Another 11 km would further link it to Chandrapur. MSRDC may need around 2000 hectares of land for the entire stretch, said a source. As the debt would be serviced through toll collection, the state govt will also bridge the gap, if any. The GR specifically mentions, "govt of Maharashtra will make good shortfall, if any, from the revenue stream of MSRDC from the state funds for making timely repayment of HUDCO's loan instalments." Earlier a proposal to raise loan worth Rs20,000 crore was cleared for Shaktipeeth Expressway connecting Goa too.