nagpur with a view to cash in on the opportunities before the forthcoming civic and local body elections the maharashtra government is delaying opening of landmark projects like samruddhi super communication highway and metro railway first phases two routes as per sources from maharashtra state road development corporation msrdc and mahametroendorsing them bjp leaders said the new government of chief minister eknath shinde and deputy cm devendra fadnavis wanted both projects to be inaugurated by prime minister narendra modi just prior to the election dates announcement as the code of conduct would be enforced from the same daysince vidarbha became the bastion of bjp in the last decade or so the top bjp leaders wanted to kickstart their campaign for the crucial elections on a high note the pm arriving in the city and opening both projects would make a big statement before the polls that the new government is serious on providing infrastructure to the public as per its agenda it would also help the party in garnering more votes bjp leaders told toiboth projects had well passed their multiple deadlines in the past msrdc joint managing director anilkumar gaikwad told toi that the 520 kms of samruddhi highway touted as the game changer for the state was almost ready the government would take a call on its inauguration out of 520 our 460 kms is totally ready in remaining patches some petty works are to be completed for a bridge and therefore there will be one diversion for the traffic as of now our deadline for this 520 km patch is december this year but we are ahead of the schedule we plan to complete the entire 701 kms till mumbai ready by december 2023 he saideven mahametros remaining routes from kasturchand park to automotive square on orange line and jhansi rani square to prajapati nagar was almost complete and are waiting for the inauguration we are working on a few areas as suggested by the commissioner of metro rail safety cmrs during their inspection and therefore it would take some time to get both routes fully ready a senior official from mahametro told toi the mva government under former cm uddhav thackeray had planned to open samruddhi expressways 210 kms stretch from selu bazaar to washim on may 2 collapse of an arch structure of a wildlife overpass at waiphal near butibori that led to the death of a laborer delayed its inaugurationon july 18 cm shinde had announced in mumbai that 502 kms of stretch from nagpur to shirdi would be opened for the traffic on august 15 but the plans were shelved at the last moment