After years of delays, Mumbai–Pune ‘Missing Link’ opens to ease traffic, but hundreds stranded on Day 1 for hours
The new stretch is designed to bypass the accident-prone and heavily congested ghat section of the expressway.
The bridge, designed for speeds of up to 100 kmph for light motor vehicles and 80 kmph for buses and passenger vehicles, is seeing cars stop abruptly, creating dangerous conditions for other commuters.
The bridge, designed for speeds of up to 100 kmph for light motor vehicles and 80 kmph for buses and passenger vehicles, is seeing cars stop abruptly, creating dangerous conditions for other commuters.
The bridge, designed for speeds of up to 100 kmph for light motor vehicles and 80 kmph for buses and passenger vehicles, is seeing cars stop abruptly, creating dangerous conditions for other commuters.
The bridge, designed for speeds of up to 100 kmph for light motor vehicles and 80 kmph for buses and passenger vehicles, is seeing cars stop abruptly, creating dangerous conditions for other commuters.
The bridge, designed for speeds of up to 100 kmph for light motor vehicles and 80 kmph for buses and passenger vehicles, is seeing cars stop abruptly, creating dangerous conditions for other commuters. (Photo: Screenshot from video shared by Devendra Fadnavis on X) After nearly a decade of construction, delays and engineering challenges, the much-awaited Missing Link on the Mumbai–Pune Expressway was finally inaugurated on Friday only for its opening day to be marred by hours of traffic jams that left thousands of commuters stranded across the Khandala ghat.
At around 1 pm, Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, along with Deputy Chief Ministers Eknath Shinde and Sunetra Pawar, inaugurated the 13.3-km corridor built by the Maharashtra State Road Development Corporation (MSRDC). Within hours, the Pune-bound arm was opened to traffic, while the Mumbai-bound stretch remained temporarily shut till evening for dismantling of event infrastructure.
Envisaged as a permanent solution to the bottleneck-heavy and accident-prone ghat section, the Missing Link project traces its origins back to the mid-1990s, with renewed momentum after state approval in 2017. Construction began around 2018–19 but was pushed back repeatedly due to land clearances, complex terrain, monsoon disruptions and the Covid-19 pandemic.
Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis (in blue vest), Deputy Chief Ministers Eknath Shinde (in white) and Sunetra Pawar (in blue saree) inaugurated the missing link on Friday, (Photo: X/Devendra Fadnavis)
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