Watch: CM Shinde sitting beside, Fadnavis takes test-drive on Samruddhi Mahamarg

'We did it, CM Eknath Shinde ji,' Fadnavis tweeted as the duo took a test drive of the Samruddhi Mahamarg which will be inaugurated by PM Modi next Sunday. The 701-km expressway will bring down the travel time between Nagpur and Pune to 6-7 hours.

The Samruddhi Mahamarg or the Nagpur-Mumbai Expressway will be inaugurated on December 11 by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Ahead of that, chief minister Eknath Shinde and his deputy Devendra Fadnavis took a test drive on the road which will bring down the travel time between Mumbai and Nagpur from 18 hours to six-seven hours. The test drive of the CM and the deputy CM on Sunday was one of its kind and there was no driver, Fadnavis was driving the car with Shinde sitting beside him -- in a display of bonhomie.

Devendra Fadnavis and Eknath Shinde taking a test-drive on Samruddhi Mahamarg on Sunday.

The expressway is a 701-long connection between Mumbai and Nagpur. PM Modi on next Sunday will inaugurate the 500-km stretch from Nagpur to Shirdi which has been completed.

Here is all you need to know about the Nagpur-Mumbai Samruddhi Mahamarg

1. The projects started when Fadnavis was the chief minister.

2. The full name of the expressway is Hindu Hrudaysamrat Balasaheb Thackeray Maharashtra Samruddhi Mahamarg.

3. The entire project is estimated to cost ₹55,000 crore.

4. The expressway will pass by 14 districts, six talukas and 392 villages, Nagpur, Wardha, Amravati, Washim, Buldhana, Aurangabad, Jalna, Ahmednagar, Nashik, Thane will all be connected by the expressway.

5. Once completed, the travel time between Mumbai and Nagpur will come down to 6-7 hours.

6. The expressway will have eight lanes, four on each side.

7. Maharashtra Highway Police has fixed a top speed limit of 120 km per hour on the expressway. Passenger vehicles with a carrying capacity of more than nine will have a maximum speed limit of 100 kmph on plain sections and 80 kmph in Ghat sections and tunnels.