88-kilometre highway from Aurangabad to Shirdi has been proposed, minister said (Representational)
A new 88-kilometre highway from Aurangabad to the temple town of Shirdi in Ahmednagar has been proposed, Maharashtra minister Subhash Desai said on Friday.
Speaking to reporters after chairing a review meeting in Aurangabad, the minister also said the stretch of the Dhule-Solapur highway that passes through Aurangabad district will be completed by August this year.
"The district administration here has proposed a separate highway between Aurangabad and Shirdi. This will be 88 kilometres long and we expect the Maharashtra State Road Transport Corporation to build it.
Moreover, work orders for the Aurangabad-Paithan highway will be given in October. The completion of the Nagpur-Mubai Samruddhi Corridor may take some more months due to the COVID-19 pandemic," he said.
The minister said Aurangabad city would get 50 MLD additional water per day from March next year due to the completion of a new pipeline project, while land for setting up 45 water storage tanks had also been finalised.
Speaking on the pandemic, the minister said 6.27 lakh out of a target of 32.87 lakh people in Aurangabad had been vaccinated, with plans afoot to start a drive on a wide scale after June 21.
The minister said 57 auditors appointed by the state government had ensured that a cumulative sum Rs 65 lakh charged extra from COVID-19 patients by 15 hospitals was returned.