The much-awaited inauguration of the Pune-Mumbai expressway’s 13-km ‘missing link’, which will significantly decongest the highway stretch and will reduce the travel time between the two cities by at least 30 minutes, may open to the public on May 1.
“The missing link project near Lonavla is 98% complete, and the construction is progressing steadily. We have a firm target to open the stretch on May 1, which coincides with Maharashtra Day,” Maharashtra State Road Development Corporation (MSRDC) joint managing director Rajesh Patil told The Times of India (TOI) on Monday.
Moreover, Maharashtra Chief Secretary Rajesh Aggarwal on Sunday visited the missing link project site and chaired a review meeting, directing officials to ensure completion within the stipulated timeframe without compromising on safety.
Features of Mumbai-Pune expressway ‘missing link’
The missing link begins at Khopoli and ends at the Sinhgad Institute (Pune). It will have two eight-lane tunnels, 1.75 km and 8.92 km long and two eight-lane viaducts of lengths 790 m and 650 m.
There will be a 640-metre cable-stayed bridge that is 100 metres above the Tiger Valley in the Lonavala-Khandala section, which is followed by an 8.9-kilometre tunnel. Some parts of the project are as deep as 170 feet beneath the ground, with the Lonavala lake resting above it.
Benefits
The missing link will help motorists bypass the Lonavla-Khandala ghat section. Currently, the distance between Khopoli and the Sinhgad Institute via the expressway is 19 kilometres, much of it through a ghat section.
In the absence of the link, motorists are forced to use a common stretch of the expressway and the old Mumbai-Bengaluru highway (NH-4) in the Ghat section.
The major issue is that the 10 lanes of the two roads (six lanes of the expressway and four lanes of the NH-4) narrow down to just six lanes. And frequent landslides lead to vehicles breaking down, making this a gridlock. After the missing link project gets operational, vehicles will be able to bypass the stretch, which will considerably help to decongest the Mumbai-Pune Expressway.
The current Mumbai-Pune Expressway was inaugurated in 2002 and is named after former chief minister Yashwantrao Chavan. It is used by around 75,000 vehicles every day, including heavy vehicles. This number often touches up to 120,000 vehicles on weekends and holidays, leading to severe traffic congestion.
