Mumbai-Pune Expressway to get four more lanes

Adding four lanes to the 95-kilometre expressway will cost approximately ₹14,260 crore, officials said

Mumbai: The state government is planning to add four more lanes to the six-lane Mumbai Pune Expressway, also known as the Yashwantrao Chavan Expressway, to ease vehicular congestion and cater to increasing traffic, officials aware of the matter told Hindustan Times. Adding four lanes to the 95-kilometre expressway will cost approximately ₹14,260 crore, the officials said.

The expressway stretch from Adoshi tunnel to Khandala exit has six lanes. But it caters to traffic from 10 lanes – six lanes of the expressway and four lanes of the Old Mumbai-Pune highway, officials said (HT Photo)

The Maharashtra State Road Development Corporation (MSRDC) is in the process of submitting a proposal in this regard to the state government, a senior MSRDC official told HT.

“If tendering formalities are conducted as planned once the government clears the proposal, four new lanes will be added to the expressway by 2030,” the official said.

Inaugurated on April 1, 2002, the crucial inter-city expressway currently has six lanes, three in each direction. Daily traffic on the expressway ranges between 80,000 to 100,000 vehicles, but surges during weekends and public holidays, leading to serpentine jams. In 2020, the 190-year old Amrutanjan bridge along the expressway was demolished to ease congestion. But motorists still complained of inordinate delays, especially along the stretch where it converges with the Old Mumbai-Pune Highway, or National Highway-4.

This stretch, from Adoshi tunnel to Khandala exit, has six lanes. But it caters to traffic from 10 lanes – six lanes of the expressway and four lanes of the Old Mumbai-Pune highway, officials said.

Acute congestion was seen along this stretch on Friday evening too, with many motorists venting their ire on social media, saying they took eight hours to cover the distance between the two cities.

“It’s so funny that the old Mumbai Pune road takes less time and less toll than the expressway. We are progressing or regressing,” a user, @imransoorya, posted on social media platform X.

The MSRDC had, in the early 2020s planned to augment the carrying capacity of the expressway from six to eight lanes. Now, the proposal has been revised to 10 lanes, officials said.

“We need to upgrade the expressway not only due to increasing traffic load but also because completion of the missing link project will add further traffic,” the MSRDC official quoted earlier said.

The missing link project is a 13.3-km stretch of the expressway that will bypass the congested Khandala and Lonavla ghat sections. It is expected to be completed and thrown open to traffic in early 2026.

Of the estimated ₹14,260 crore capital expenditure involved in adding four lanes to the expressway, the state government is likely to contribute 40% while the balance is likely to be borne by the infrastructure firm that is awarded the tender, officials said. The toll collection period on the expressway will be extended beyond April 30, 2045 once the capacity augmentation is approved by the state government, officials said.