Two new three-lane bridges over the Mutha and Mula rivers on Pune’s Mumbai-Bengaluru Highway have opened to traffic, offering relief on one of the city’s most congested corridors, although the exact travel-time reduction cited in the report requires clarification.
The bridges have been built by the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) at Warje over the Mutha river and at Wakad over the Mula river. According to the report by Loksatta – Pune, the openings have improved traffic movement between the Navale Bridge and Ravet stretches of the highway, where long queues have become a regular feature during peak hours.
The report’s summary says the new infrastructure could reduce the Mumbai-Pune journey by around 30 to 40 minutes. However, the body of the report later states that the bridges will reduce citizens’ travel time by approximately 15 to 20 minutes. The supplied material does not explain the reason for the difference, making confirmation of the precise saving necessary before the figure can be treated as established.
The congestion problem has intensified as Pune and Pimpri-Chinchwad expanded around the highway. Local traffic generated by the growth of residential and commercial areas has increasingly mixed with long-distance traffic using the Mumbai-Bengaluru route. This has placed pressure on a corridor that was designed to carry through traffic but now also functions as a major urban connector.
The report says traffic queues have extended for 8 to 10 kilometres around the Katraj New Tunnel and Navale Bridge areas during severe congestion. Warje, Baner, Balewadi, Wakad and Bhumkar Chowk have been identified as locations expected to benefit from the new bridges. The additional crossing capacity is intended to reduce bottlenecks where river crossings and merging traffic have slowed movement.
The Warje bridge is approximately 500 metres long, while the Wakad bridge measures about 175 metres. Both have three lanes and are now open for traffic, according to the report. Their operation is expected to improve the movement of vehicles through the affected sections, particularly during the morning and evening peaks.
Sachin Gautam, NHAI’s project director, said the bridges would help reduce congestion in Warje, Baner, Balewadi, Wakad and the Bhumkar Chowk area. The report does not provide the project cost, construction timeline, traffic counts before and after the opening, or an official measurement of the travel-time reduction.
The opening highlights the changing role of Pune’s highways as urban infrastructure. As the metropolitan area has expanded, national highway sections have become part of daily intra-city travel networks. The immediate effect of the bridges will need to be assessed through verified journey-time data and traffic conditions across the wider Navale Bridge-Ravet corridor. NHAI’s official confirmation of the travel-time estimate remains the next key step.
