Mumbai-Pune Expressway Missing Link May 1 Deadline Near, Work On Track
3 min readApr 22, 2026 11:18 AM IST
The long-promised deadline of May 1 for the Missing Link on the Mumbai-Pune Expressway—a Rs 6,695 crore project designed to bypass the 19.8 km accident-prone and congested Ghat stretch between Khalapur and Kusgaon—is now just a week away. Engineers, labourers, and contractors are working overnight to see it across the finishing line, even as the West Asia conflict has made bitumen and waterproofing material hard to come by.
Once complete, vehicles will be able to bypass the treacherous ghat section and zip through a straight, long corridor of tunnels and bridges, cutting travel time by at least 30 minutes.
“Our aim is to finish all work by May 1,” said Rajesh Patil, Joint Managing Director, Maharashtra State Road Development Corporation (MSRDC). “Everything is on track. There were some issues in procuring bitumen and waterproofing material, which set us back by a few days, but we are trying our best to meet the deadline,” he added.
While the MSRDC aims to wrap up work by May 1, an inauguration date has yet to be decided and might be subject to the availability of politicians.
An MSRDC official said that currently, the last leg of laying bitumen is underway along the cable-stayed bridge portion of the project. Due to the West Asia conflict, bitumen, which is made up of crude oil, has been in short supply and expensive. An ANAROCK report in March had noted the cost had risen to Rs 48,000-51,000/tonne. The costs have now shot up over 50 per cent.
“Both bitumen and waterproofing material are limited in supply, so it has been taking longer to reach us and in smaller quantities. It has added a delay of two to four days to the work, but we are still trying to make it in time. Earlier, we had planned to finish work by April 25, but that date will likely be surpassed. We are trying our best to finish by May 1,” the official added.
Currently, the last leg of laying bitumen is underway along the cable-stayed bridge portion of the Missing Link project on the Mumbai-Pune Expressway. (Express Photo by Narendra Vaskar)
The Missing Link is a 13.3 km alignment, made up of an 850 m viaduct, a 1.75 km tunnel, a 640 m cable-stayed bridge, and another 8.9 km tunnel through the hills. The cable-stayed bridge towers 180 m into the Tiger Valley, while the tunnels stretch almost 9 km into the hills and under the Lonavala lake. Not only will the winding Ghat section with steep inclines be optional on the route between Mumbai and Pune, but vehicles will also be able to bypass tourists visiting Lonavala and Khandala.
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Load testing on the Missing Link began in early April. While the tunnels had been completed a while back, the last remaining works were left on the deck of the cable-stayed bridge.
