Mumbai-Pune Expressway Missing Link: All You Need To Know

The much awaited missing link of the Mumbai-Pune Expressway is set to be inaugurated on Friday, May 1 which also happens to be Maharashtra day. It promises to reduce the travel time between two biggest cities of the state by 30-45 minutes and more importantly will bypass the heavily congested ghat section of the Expressway in Lonavala. The Mumbai Pune Expressway first started in 2022 and now more than 2 decades years later, the way you drive on it will see a massive transformation.

The missing link is a combination of two tunnels which are joined by a cable stayed bridge bang in the middle of western ghats. While the first tunnel towards Mumbai is 1.67 km long the tunnel towards Pune is much longer at 8.92 km. The cable stayed bridge is 650 m long and has been designed to withstand wind speed of more than 250 kmph. The entire length of the missing link is 13.3 km which is lesser than the present 19.8 km distance between the two points via the ghats.

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The state Government has already announced that no additional toll will be charged for using the missing link. It also added that for the first six months only light vehicles will be allowed to use the link and heavy vehicles will continue to use the old ghat section of the Expressway. The speed limit has been kept at 120 kmph on open sections and 100 kmph inside the tunnels which is much faster than the current 60 kmph limit on some of the ghat sections of the Expressway.