In a major boost to the commuting between Mumbai and Pune, Deputy Chief Minister Eknath Shinde on Monday said that 95 per cent work on the missing link project at Mumbai–Pune expressway is over. The government sources said that it aims to meet the new deadline of August 2025 for this project.
The project, estimated at Rs 6,600 crore, has seen extension of deadline several times—from March 2024 to January 2025, which was further revised to March 2025. The 13-kilometre ‘missing link’, which will cut across the existing Mumbai–Pune expressway, will trim the distance between the two cities by 5.7 kilometres and reduce the travel time by around 30 minutes.
The “missing link” project has been delayed multiple times due to the complex challenges of the terrain and ambitious engineering feats.
Starting at Khopoli, the project includes an 840-metre viaduct, a 1.75-kilometre tunnel, and a 640-metre cable-stayed bridge that soars 100 metres above the Tiger Valley in the Lonavala-Khandala section.
Following this, the route continues through another 8.9-kilometre tunnel—some parts of which are as deep as 170 feet beneath the ground with the Lonavala lake resting above it. This new alignment will reduce travel time significantly. Currently, the distance between Khopoli and the Sinhgad Institute via the expressway is 19 kilometres, much of it through a ghat section.
The second viaduct, which forms a key section of the project, is a cable-stayed bridge that reaches a staggering height of 100 metres above Khandala Valley. This towering structure, along with other engineering challenges, has made the project both time-consuming and intricate. Deputy CM Shinde on Monday stressed on the testing of every portion of the bridge during construction. “This work has to be done with utmost care. There has to be testing at every level and there should be no negligence,” Shinde said.
With fewer hills to navigate, drivers will also be able to travel at speed up to 120 km per hour. The project’s design also focuses on safety with officials stating that one of its primary goals is to turn the Mumbai-Pune Expressway into a “zero-fatality corridor.” This initiative aims to reduce accidents, particularly in the notoriously hazardous ghat section.