Maha: Repair of Aurangabad-Ajanta road begins post monsoon

Work on four-laning of the Aurangabad-Ajanta highway resumed after the monsoon with several teams beginning to fill up potholes on a 100-kilometer stretch, an official said on Monday. The road, which leads to the renowned Ajanta Caves, a UNESCO world heritage monument, has been in a bad shape since long, the heavy rains in the region battering it further.

It had led to a huge fall in the arrival of foreign and domestic tourists, local travel operators had claimed earlier. Even Union Minister of Road Transport and Highways Nitin Gadkari had tweeted on the road's deplorable condition and had asked authorities to set it right as soon as possible.

"We have been ordered to make the road as motorable as early as possible. We have started filling potholes and in a week or two, traffic movement on the Aurangabad-Ajanta road will be far more comfortable," said Superintendent Engineer Prashant Auti of the Public Works (National Highway) division. He said more teams will be deployed for the repair work in a few day's time.

Officials, quoting the master plan of the work, said two concretized lanes, of seven meters, will be ready by April next year. Auti said the entire stretch will be ready by November next year.