Centre approves expressway connecting JNPA with Navi Mumbai airport | Mumbai news – LIVE INDIA l AAPKE LIYE INDIA KI HAR KHABAR LIVE

Mar 20, 2025 07:08 AM IST

Two tunnels passing through the Sahayadri mountain range will allow for safe and fast movement of commercial vehicles, including heavy trucks

Mumbai: The union cabinet on Wednesday approved the construction of a 29-km-long six-lane expressway from Pagote in the Jawaharlal Nehru Port Authority area to Chouk at the junction of the old Mumbai-Pune highway and Karjat road, while also linking the Mumbai-Pune Expressway and the Mumbai-Goa national highway (NH-66).

Shipping containers sit stacked at a freight depot near the Jawaharlal Nehru Port, operated by Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust (JNPT), in this aerial photograph taken in Navi Mumbai, Maharashtra, India, on Saturday, May 25, 2019. President Donald Trump opened another potential front in his trade war on May 31, terminating India's designation as a developing nation and thereby eliminating an exception that allowed the country to export nearly 2,000 products to the U.S. duty-free. Photographer: Dhiraj Singh/Bloomberg (Bloomberg) — Shipping containers sit stacked at a freight depot near the Jawaharlal Nehru Port, operated by Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust (JNPT), in this aerial photograph taken in Navi Mumbai, Maharashtra, India, on Saturday, May 25, 2019. President Donald Trump opened another potential front in his trade war on May 31, terminating India’s designation as a developing nation and thereby eliminating an exception that allowed the country to export nearly 2,000 products to the U.S. duty-free. Photographer: Dhiraj Singh/Bloomberg (Bloomberg)

The expressway, which will cost over ₹4,500 crore, is designed to improve logistics efficiency by connecting JNPA with the upcoming Navi Mumbai International Airport. Two tunnels passing through the Sahayadri mountain range will allow for safe and fast movement of commercial vehicles, including heavy trucks, compared with the current ghat roads.

The project is in line with the PM GatiShakti national master plan to provide integrated multimodal connectivity infrastructure at various economic zones. It will be developed using a Build, Operate, and Transfer model, in which a private company is contracted to build and operate the project for a specified period before it is transferred to the government.

With increasing container volume at JNPA and the development of the Navi Mumbai International Airport, a need was identified for augmenting national highway connectivity in the region, a government release said.

At present, it takes two to three hours for vehicles to go from JNPA to the arterial Golden Quadrilateral section of NH-48 and the Mumbai-Pune Expressway due to heavy congestion in urban areas like Palaspe Phata, D-Point, Kalamboli junction, and Panvel. The route witnesses daily traffic of 180,000 cars, the release said.

After the Navi Mumbai airport commences operations later this year, the need for direct connectivity is expected to increase further. The new greenfield project corridor will lead to better port connectivity and help with safe and efficient freight movement, according to the release. The project will also open new avenues of growth, development and prosperity in developing regions in and around Mumbai and Pune.