The Maharashtra State Road Development Corporation (MSRDC) has planned the country’s second longest tunnel on the Mumbai-Pune Expressway as part of its augmentation plans for the Expressway and National Highway 4 after a series of fatal accidents recently.
The tunnel, expected to be around six to eight km, will link Khopoli and Lonavala, bypassing the dangerous ghat section, MSRDC officials said. “This will be the country’s second longest tunnel. It will also surpass Jammu and Kashmir’s Jawahar tunnel , the longest now at 2.5 km,” said a senior MSRDC official requesting anonymity.
The under-construction 11-km Rohtang tunnel is slated to be the longest in the country.
At present, the longest tunnel on the Expressway is at Kamshet, near Pune. It is around 1.5 km long. The proposed eight-lane tunnel will save around 30 minutes of travel time and enable commuters to avoid traffic snarls at the ghat section where the two highways meet.
The plan envisages adding two lanes to the six-lane Expressway and the four-lane NH-4, also called the old highway.
At present, the Expressway has five tunnels. As per MSRDC estimates, the average daily traffic on the Expressway is around 30,000 PCUs (passenger car equivalent) . The MSRDC is also planning to allow motorists from the old highway to use the tunnel. “The idea is to allow the use of the tunnel to motorists on both highways. We will set up a toll booth,” the official added.
The main “challenge” for the corporation would be to secure the go ahead from various agencies, officials said. “We have to take permissions from the Ministry of Environment and Forests, National Highways Authority of India and Ministry of Road Transport and Highway. These will take about a year and the construction is expected to take another three years,” officials said.
... contd.
