India, Jan. 20 -- Nearly 24 years after the Mumbai-Pune Expressway opened to the public, travel between the two cities is set to become faster with the completion of the long-delayed missing link project, now scheduled to open on April 1, 2026. Once operational, the project is expected to cut travel time by up to 25 minutes and reduce the expressway length by nearly 6 km.

The Rs.6,695.37-crore project, being executed by the Maharashtra State Road Development Corporation (MSRDC), involves a complex combination of tunnels and cable-stayed bridges between Khalapur and Lonavala, one of the most congested stretches of the 95-km expressway.

According to MSRDC officials, the two ends of the cable-stayed bridge, a key component of the project, ...