NHAI digs ponds by wayside to allieviate water shortage; soil from there helps to build roads
Aurangabad, April 24. Union Minister for Road Transport and Highways (MoRTH) Nitin Gadkari today announced plans to construct an access controlled expresssway between Aurangabad and Pune at an estimated cost of Rs 10,000 crore.
Inaugurating seven NH projects worth Rs 5569 crore there the minister said the proposed expressway will reduce the travel time between the two cities situated 225 kilometres apart from the present 4-5 hours to 1.15 hours. Vehicles could travel through the expressway at 140 km per hour, said Mr. Gadkari.
The expressway will lead to further development of Aurangabad district which is one of the major industrial and educational centers in Maharashtra,
Road construction using soil from newly dug Ponds
Mr. Gadkari said efforts have been made to alleviate the water crisis through road projects in the water-starved Aurangabad district. He said in the construction of roads, many ponds have been constructed on the lines of Buldhana pattern and the soil and stones have been used for the construction of roads.
He said through this, the soil extracted from the ponds created in Adgaon-Gandheli, Valmi and Nakshatrawadi areas, Teesgaon and Sajapur village areas has got double benefit. Deepening has made it possible to create ponds in each area. Shri Gadkari said his will help in reducing the water crisis by increasing the ground water level. The construction of such ponds in the district has increased the water capacity to 14 lakh cubic meters till date, he added.
