Pune: Once hailed as Maharashtra’s flagship infrastructure project and India’s first access-controlled expressway, the 95-km Mumbai-Pune Expressway is increasingly emerging as a chronic choke point, where a single accident or breakdown can paralyse traffic for hours and strand thousands of commuters.
The latest disruption unfolded on Tuesday, when a tanker carrying highly inflammable propylene gas overturned near the Adoshi tunnel in the Khandala ghat section, forcing a safety shutdown that brought traffic to a standstill for over 24 hours. The incident once again underscored how the 24-year-old expressway remains highly vulnerable to disruption, despite improved enforcement and a marginal decline in accident numbers.
Operational since April 2002 and built at an estimated cost of ₹1,600 crore, the expressway initially transformed travel between Mumbai and Pune, cutting journey time from five to six hours via the old national highway to nearly three. However, over the years, rising vehicle volumes have steadily eroded those gains. According to estimates from Ideal Road Builders, which manages the expressway, around 100,000 vehicles use it daily, up from XX in YY (year).
What was envisioned as a high-speed corridor has increasingly become synonymous with unpredictability—long queues, frequent bottlenecks and mounting commuter frustration, with travel time between Pune and Mumbai often stretching up to six hours.
Official data does point to some improvement in safety outcomes. Between January and November 2025, accidents on the expressway fell by about 26%, with fatalities declining from 82 deaths in 66 crashes in 2024 to 61 deaths in 54 crashes in 2025.
Yet, for commuters, these numbers offer little comfort. Every major crash or stalled vehicle continues to trigger kilometre-long traffic snarls, especially near Bor Ghat in Khandala and the Khalapur toll plaza—sections that routinely struggle to cope with peak traffic.
Weekend travel and long holidays have made bumper-to-bumper congestion almost routine, while festival periods such as Diwali and Christmas often result in multi-hour jams. Motorists frequently report vehicles overheating, clutch plate damage and breakdowns caused by prolonged crawling traffic.
Shrirang Barne, an MP from Maval, whose constituency includes the entire expressway, expressed helplessness over the recurring gridlocks. “The number of vehicles using the expressway every day has increased sharply. I have myself been stuck here multiple times. Over the years, vehicle load has kept rising. Unless the Missing Link becomes operational, traffic jams will continue and will not reduce,” he said.
The Missing Link is a 13.3-km project designed to bypass the treacherous Khandala Ghat section, where traffic from the six-lane expressway and four-lane Old Mumbai-Pune Highway merges. The alignment shortens the route by about six kilometres and is expected to save 25-30 minutes of travel time. Originally slated for completion in 2022, the project has faced repeated delays and is now targeted for opening by May 1, 2026.
The state government has acknowledged that the expressway is no longer delivering a smooth travel experience. Minister of state for public works Indranil Naik said officials had been asked to examine how prolonged disruptions could be better managed.
“In situations like this, where a tanker overturns and causes traffic disruption for days, we need a clearer response plan,” Naik said, recounting how he, too, had been stuck in expressway traffic for several hours on earlier occasions. He added that officials had been instructed to come up with corrective measures.
Road safety activists argue that the problem goes beyond isolated accidents. Tanmay Pendse, who has tracked expressway safety issues for over 15 years, said repeated incidents point to poor coordination among agencies managing the corridor. “The highway police are doing their job, but their role has limits. MSRDC, concessionaires, the state government and other agencies operate in silos. Without coordinated decision-making, even a manageable accident turns into a crisis,” he said.
Regular commuters echo this uncertainty. IT professional Sandesh Wadhva, who travels between Pune and Navi Mumbai twice a week, said delays have become routine. “You can plan everything perfectly and still get stuck for 10-12 hours. There is no assurance that accidents will be cleared quickly,” he said. Homemaker Neha Deshpande, who was stranded recently with her elderly parents and a toddler, recalled the lack of basic support. “There was no information, no water, no help. It felt like we were forgotten on the road,” she said.
The current crisis also revives memories of earlier accidents, including the May 2022 propylene gas tanker crash near Khopoli that killed three people and raised serious concerns about crash barriers, hazardous material handling and emergency preparedness—issues that experts say remain inadequately addressed.
Around two and a half decades after it opened, the Mumbai-Pune Expressway continues to carry traffic volumes far beyond what it was originally designed for.