The state government has granted approval for the construction of a crucial connector between the Chirle interchange of the Mumbai Trans-Harbour Link (MTHL) and the Mumbai-Pune Expressway at Palaspe. This development, set to be undertaken by the MMRDA, is anticipated to commence shortly.
The new connector is poised to significantly diminish travel time between Mumbai and Pune by utilizing the MTHL route. Currently, motorists are compelled to navigate through NH 348 and the Old Mumbai-Pune highway to access the Mumbai-Pune Expressway, a time-consuming route that falls short of delivering the promised time savings for the journey between the two cities.
While at many stretches of NH 348 of 4B has already been widened upto 6 lanes, the stretch from Chirle to Gavan Phata and from Palsape to Mumbai-Pune Expressway connector is not ready.
As per the plan, a six lane elevated corridor will be constructed from Chirle to Gavan Phata with an interchange at Chirle and up and down ramps at Gavan Phata. Similarly, a six lane elevated corridor from existing Palaspe flyover to Mumbai-Pune expressway with an interchange.
The completion of these two stretches from Chirle to Gavan Phata and Palaspe to Mumbai-Pune Expressway will offer commuters a direct route from Sewri to Pune, bypassing traffic congestion and potentially saving over an hour in travel time. In future, after connecting MTHL with Worli, motorists will not need to negotiate traffic.
Many commuters say that MTHL is good for reaching South Mumbai. Even, at present the MTLH does not have access from Ulwe node, if motorists want to go to Chirle. The interchange to enter the MTHL from Ulwe will be connected only after Coastal Road connecting Uran to Belapur will be ready. The work of Coastal Road has just started.
However, the MTHL has brought down the distance between Sewri to Chirle from 52km to just 22 km. The longest sea bridge of the country has 16.over the sea and about 5.5 km viaduct on land on either side. The mega infrastructure project has been completed at a cost of around Rs 17,842 crores. At present, around 30,000 vehicles are using the sea bridge per day.