Mumbai-bound lane of Mumbai-Pune Expressway to remain shut for 1 hour for gantry erection

Mumbai-Pune Expressway/ File photo

The Mumbai-bound lane of Mumbai-Pune Expressway will be temporarily closed on October 12 for an hour to facilitate the erection of gantries (height barriers). According to a report in PTI, the closure is scheduled at 12 pm and it shall remain closed until 1 pm.

Reportedly, the erection of gantries is a part of the highway management system upgrade. The gantries will be erected at Deku village, Aadoshi tunnel and Amrutanjan Bridge. This project falls under the supervision of the Maharashtra State Road Development Corporation (MSRDC).

The Mumbai-Pune Expressway spans approximately 95 kilometres and stands as India's first access-controlled six-lane expressway.

A similar two-hour lane closure was conducted the day before on the Pune-bound side of the expressway to install overhead gantries at Amrutanjan Bridge and Khandala tunnel. The corridor was closed to traffic on Tuesday between 12 pm and 2 pm.

The Maharashtra State Road Development Corporation officials had earlier reasoned that they chose the two-hour period since the traffic is sparse during noons and that a weekday had relatively lower volume than on the weekends.

Reportedly, the state highway police officials had said that vehicles on the corridor would be stopped at a place prior to the Amrutanjan Bridge and Khandala tunnel where the construction was carried out. And that the traffic flow would be resuming after the work was done.

Landslide causes closure of Mumbai-Pune expressway

The Mumbai-Pune Expressway had to be closed for vehicular traffic during monsoon this year due to two landslide incidents reported on Mumbai-bound lanes. Traffic was affected for five hours on the access-controlled expressway.

After the first incident near Aadoshi village, the road was shut between 10.30 pm and 3 am. Soon after, around 3.30 am another landslide was reported near Khandala.

The teams of state highway police, MSRDC and other stakeholders, to remove loose boulders and debris, had initially completely closed Mumbai-bound lanes of the six-lane expressway. After the removal of mud, debris and boulders by 5.30 pm, traffic movement had resumed. Reportedly, the authorities had then kept one Mumbai-bound lane closed to complete the work of installing steel nets to prevent further landslides in the ghat section.