State public works minister Nitin Gadkari told reporters on Wednesday that each duct can accommodate one fibre optic cable capable of having more than 10,000 channels. Along the road, jointing chambers will be provided at a distance of every 2 km for splicing of two cables, unlike the 170m provided in Mumbai.

Gadkari said that these six ducts will be laid in a 30cm trench along the unpaved shoulder of the road 1m below road level. On bridges, these ducts can be laid like conduits in the slab while concreting. In rock cutting areas, including tunnels, these ducts will be laid below the paved shoulder by cutting a shallow trench in the rock.

Gadkari said that availability of ducts will do away with frequent digging of roads and reduce time for laying telecom cables. "This will accelerate the development of telecom system in this area and leasing of ducts would also assure revenue," he said.

Gadkari said this was the first project in the country where a road development agency was laying telecom ducts at the time of construction for various prospective users. "With the success of this project on Mumbai-Pune expressway, we intend to provide such telecom ducts along other major roads/expressways in Maharashtra," he added.

The minister said that MSRDC will complete construction of the Mumbai-Pune expressway by December 1999. In association with IL&FS, it will undertake construction of the Rs 180-crore Panvel bypass which will ease the Mumbai traffic and connect the proposed Mumbai-Nasik and Mumbai-Goa expressways.

On the construction of 50 flyovers in greater Mumbai, Gadkari said that total cost was down from Rs 1,800 crore to Rs 1,400 crore following change in the construction code and designs and modern technology. Of the total 50 flyovers, 36 were on the Sion-Panvel highway, eastern express highway and western express highway under the control of state public works department and the rest on roads belonging to the BrihanMumbai Municipal Corporation.

Of these 36, construction has begun on 29 flyovers. MSRDC has adopted the Airoli bridge constructed by the City & Industrial Development Corporation which will be opened on December 31.