Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis on Friday, 3 July 2026, chaired a high-level meeting in Mumbai with the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) to review two proposed flyovers in Solapur city, anchored by an ambitious ₹1020.50 crore four-lane elevated corridor on National Highway 65. The project, spanning 9.66 km from Old Pune Naka to Boramani Naka, is designed to create an efficient traffic ring around Solapur and is positioned as a transformative leap for the city's transportation network and industrial economy.

Context

Fadnavis announced that he had 'directed all concerned agencies to ensure robust coordination among the district administration, Solapur Municipal Corporation and central departments to swiftly resolve all bottlenecks and accelerate project execution.' The elevated corridor will feature 6 entry and exit points, enabling seamless connectivity between National Highways 65, 52, 166 and 150 — four major arteries that converge in and around Solapur.

Minister Jaykumar Gore, Minister ShivendraSinh Raje Bhonsle, MLA Devendra Kothe and senior officials were present at the meeting, signalling multi-level political and administrative attention to the project.

Policy Backdrop

The project sits within the broader Bharatmala Pariyojana, launched in 2015, which identified elevated corridors and bypasses in tier-2 cities — including Solapur — to decongest national highways passing through urban centres. During Fadnavis's earlier tenure as Chief Minister between 2014 and 2019, the Maharashtra government signed multiple MoUs with NHAI for four-laning and grade separators on NH 65, the key east-west corridor linking Pune to Hyderabad via Solapur.

This announcement continues a pattern of state-central coordination on urban stretches of national highways, converting congested city sections into elevated corridors. Similar NHAI projects have been executed or approved in Pune, Nagpur and Nashik over the last decade, and the Solapur corridor follows the same template of pairing intra-city traffic relief with improved inter-state freight movement.

Stakeholders and Impact

Solapur is a strategically located industrial and textile hub in western Maharashtra, positioned at the junction of multiple national highways. The elevated corridor is expected to directly benefit daily commuters, inter-state truck operators and local industrial units by easing chronic bottlenecks along the NH 65 urban stretch. The government cited anticipated gains including substantial fuel savings, reduced vehicular pollution and a stronger positioning of Solapur as a strategic transportation hub.

The Solapur Municipal Corporation is a key coordination partner, responsible for aligning land, utilities and urban integration requirements with NHAI's execution timeline. The involvement of district administration alongside central departments underscores the complexity of delivering an elevated corridor through an active urban zone.

What's Next

The immediate focus will be on NHAI tender finalisation and land acquisition progress — two variables that historically determine the pace of such urban infrastructure projects. The Chief Minister's directive for 'robust coordination' and swift resolution of bottlenecks suggests that inter-agency alignment meetings with the district administration are expected to follow in the near term.

If executed on schedule, the 9.66 km elevated corridor could redefine freight and passenger movement not just within Solapur but across the broader Pune–Hyderabad corridor, with knock-on benefits for industrial logistics in the region. The project's completion would mark one of the most significant infrastructure investments in Solapur's recent history.