Chief minister Uddhav Thackeray on Thursday reviewed the progress of the ‘Missing link’ project in the ghat section on the Pune-Mumbai expressway, which will help reduce the travel distance between the two cities by six kilometres and save 20 minutes of travelling time.
Maharashtra State Road Development Corporation (MSRDC) is executing the Rs 4,797 crore project to build a bypass road between Khopoli and Kusgaon on the Pune-Mumbai Expressway. Thackeray along with public works minister Eknath Shinde; energy minister Nitin Raut; transport minister Anil Parab and MSRDC director Radheshyam Mopalwar and other officials visited the site and inspected the progress of the missing link work between Khopoli and Kusgaon.
“The length of existing Pune-Mumbai expressway section from Khopoli exit to Sinhgad Institute is presently 19km. This distance will be reduced to 13.3km after construction of the new missing link. So, the total length of the expressway from Mumbai to Pune will be reduced by six kilometres. Travel time will be reduced by 20-25 minutes,” said Mopalwar during his briefing to the chief minister.
MSRDC officials claimed that once the project is complete, the section would be accident-free. “Mumbai-Pune expressway and NH-4 meet near Khalapur toll plaza and separate near the Khandala exit. The section from Adoshi tunnel to Khandala exit is a six-lane road but the traffic of 10-lane road (six-lane of Mumbai-Pune Expressway + four-lane of NH-4) ply in thw section. Heavy amounts of traffic and landslides cause congestion in this stretch. Due to decrease in speed and increase in time of travel in this section and in order to save time, vehicles move at a faster speed on the rest of the expressway which has resulted in an increase in the number of accidents,” said an MSRDC official.
{{/usCountry}}MSRDC officials claimed that once the project is complete, the section would be accident-free. “Mumbai-Pune expressway and NH-4 meet near Khalapur toll plaza and separate near the Khandala exit. The section from Adoshi tunnel to Khandala exit is a six-lane road but the traffic of 10-lane road (six-lane of Mumbai-Pune Expressway + four-lane of NH-4) ply in thw section. Heavy amounts of traffic and landslides cause congestion in this stretch. Due to decrease in speed and increase in time of travel in this section and in order to save time, vehicles move at a faster speed on the rest of the expressway which has resulted in an increase in the number of accidents,” said an MSRDC official.
{{/usCountry}}Officials briefed that the project is divided in two packages - package-I consists of two eight-lane tunnels of length 1.75km and 8.92km respectively and package-II consist of two eight-lane viaducts of length 790m and 650m respectively and capacity augmentation (six-lane to eight-lane) of the existing Pune-Mumbai expressway from Khalapur toll plaza to Khopoli exit (6.5 km).
Meanwhile, the Chief Minister also visited the trauma care centre at Ozurde. Earlier in the day, the CM inspected the progress of the work at Koyna hydroelectric power plant in Pophali, Ratnagiri and later inspected Koyna dam area in Satara district.