Mumbai - Pune Expressway snippets

Expansion of the Mumbai-Pune Expressway will make civil engineering history in the country with plans to blast two 6-km road tunnels, one of the longest in India, through the rock on the ghat section near Lonavala. The Maharashtra State Road Development Corporation (MSRDC) has drawn up plans for the project, which will cost Rs 3,500 to 4,000 crore, on a build-operate-transfer (BOT) method. “The 2.5 km Jawahar Tunnel in Jammu is the longest road tunnel so far. A road tunnel planned on the Rohtang pass in Kashmir will be 8.8 km long, but that has still to take shape,’’ MSRDC engineers said. “The exact length of the tunnels, which might stretch to 8 km in length, will be decided by civil engineering consultants after studying the terrain. The consultants are expected to be appointed shortly,’’ said a senior MSRDC official. The expressway will be expanded from six lane to eight lane, while the old Pune Highway, NH4 will be changed from four lane to six lane. Firms vying for the consultancy for this project are Stup Consultants, UICDhruv-Nod, (joint initiative), Secon Geo Consultants, Spectrum Techno-Iyesa-Feedback Ventures and Multi Media Associates. The 93-km long Mumbai-Pune Expressway was completed in 2000 and starts from Kalamboli, near Panvel, and ends at Dehu road near Pune. It has five interchanges Kon (Shedung), Chowk, Khalapur, Kusgaon and Talegaon.