Pay attention, commuters! The Mumbai-Pune Expressway’s Panvel exit heading towards Mumbai will be blocked for the next six months, beginning from February 11.
The Panvel exit route on the Mumbai carriageway, which leads to Panvel, Mumbraand JNPT via Kalamboli Circle, will be blocked for the next six months for construction. The closure will have an impact on all sorts of vehicles, both light and heavy.
The Maharashtra State Infrastructure Development Corporation is working on the construction of a flyover and an underpass at the Kalamboli circle, the Times of India reported citing Navi Mumbai traffic police’s Kalamboli unit.
“All types of vehicles, including cars and heavy vehicles, plying along the Mumbai-Pune Expressway towards Panvel, Goa and JNPT will be diverted to the left from Kon Phata (junction) at 9.6 km distance before the Panvel exit route to reach Palaspe circle and connect to NH-48 (Delhi-Chennai national highway) to reach their destinations,” said deputy commissioner of police (traffic) Tirupati Kakade.
Cars heading from Pune to Taloja, Kalyan and Shilphata would also be impacted; instead of using the Panvel exit, they would have to climb down the highway to get to Kalamboli. According to Kakade, these cars will need to go down the Sion-Panvel highway, turn right under the flyover beside the Pursharth gas station to get to Roadpali and then continue on to connect to NH-48.
However, the Panvel exit shutdown won’t cause any problems for traffic from Pune to the Atal Setu tunnel because they will be rerouted from the service road at Kon Phata. DCP Kakade said the flyover and underpass being built at Kalamboli Circle will significantly reduce traffic congestion.
The nation’s first six-lane highway is the Mumbai-Pune Expressway, which links Mumbai and Pune. This 94.5-kilometer highway was developed at a cost of around Rs 1,63,000 crore.
With the completion of the Mumbai-Pune Expressway, the travel time between Mumbai and Pune has been reduced from three to one hour. The highway has also increased the amount of people that commute between the two cities every day.