Ahead of the long weekend, commuters on the Mumbai–Pune Expressway witnessed traffic jams on both sides of the corridor. Many reported that traffic was moving at a crawl across multiple stretches. The reason behind the long queue is the weekend rush and the Republic Day holiday, which falls right after Sunday. So many have planned their weekend. As per reports, the inconvenience was caused by unplanned maintenance work.
According to Pune Now, Late Friday night, tarmac work near a toll plaza closed two lanes, causing a major bottleneck that persisted into Saturday morning. The situation worsened in Borghat, where traffic was completely blocked due to heavy trucks occupying multiple lanes and a vehicle breakdown at a key turning point, restricting movement to a single lane for smaller vehicles.
Commuters on X expressed frustration with lane discipline, reporting heavy vehicles using the right overtaking lane in ghat sections despite struggling with inclines.
Motorists also cited a lack of real-time traffic alerts and visible traffic management at bottlenecks. Highway police reportedly implemented 20-30 minute blocks for Mumbai-bound traffic to ease Pune-bound congestion, further delaying travel to Mumbai.