Three different road projects on the Mumbai-Pune corridor are routinely reported as though they were one. One of them opened in May 2026. One was approved by the Union Cabinet in March 2025. One exists only as a tender for a study. Getting them apart is the whole of the answer, so this page separates them before it does anything else.
The short answer
A second Mumbai-Pune expressway has been proposed, and NHAI has invited bids for the detailed project report and feasibility study. Nothing has been built, no alignment has been finalised and no completion date exists.
What was reported on 26 May 2026 is that the National Highways Authority of India has invited bids for the DPR and feasibility study for a new access-controlled expressway of about 113 km, running from the Atal Setu and JNPA area to Shivare near Pune, where it would link the proposed Pune Ring Road. The estimated cost is around ₹15,000 crore, the design capacity is given as roughly three lakh vehicles a day, and the stated aim is a Mumbai-Pune commute of about 90 minutes.
Every one of those figures belongs to a proposal. The status is pre-DPR.
What a DPR and feasibility tender actually means
It means the government is paying a consultant to find out whether the road can be built, where, and for how much. It is the earliest formal stage in the life of an Indian highway project.
The sequence that follows, when a project proceeds at all, is roughly this.
- Feasibility study and DPR. Alignment options, traffic surveys, geotechnical work, cost estimation. This is the stage the second expressway is at.
- In-principle and financial approval. A competent authority, often the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs for a project of this size, sanctions the scheme and its cost.
- Land acquisition and clearances. Section notifications, awards, compensation, environmental and forest clearance.
- Award of the contract. EPC, BOT, HAM or DBFOT, depending on how the state or NHAI chooses to fund it.
- Construction.
- Opening to traffic.
The estimate at stage one is not the cost at stage five. The Missing Link, on the same corridor, was sanctioned at ₹4,797.57 crore at 2015-16 rates and has been reported as delivered at ₹6,695 crore by Autocar and ₹7,181 crore by Blackridge. That is the ordinary distance between a study figure and a built figure.
A tender for a feasibility study is an announcement about intent. It tells you a road is being considered, not that it is coming.
The three projects, separated by status
This is the table worth keeping.
| Project | What it is | Status as at 21 August 2026 |
|---|---|---|
| Mumbai-Pune Expressway Missing Link | 13.3 km, eight lanes, two tunnels of 1.6 to 1.75 km and 8.92 km, a 650 m cable-stayed bridge. Bypasses the ghat between the Adoshi tunnel and the Khandala exit. MSRDC. | Open. Inaugurated 1 May 2026, open to motorists from 2 May 2026. Restricted to LMVs, cars, SUVs and buses at opening. |
| JNPA (Pagote) to Chowk highway | 29.219 km, six-lane access-controlled greenfield road from JNPA and NH-348 at Pagote to Chowk on NH-48. Two tunnels through the Sahyadris replacing a ghat section. ₹4,500.62 crore, BOT (Toll). | Approved. Cleared by the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs on 19 March 2025. No completion date has been published and construction status is unverified. |
| Proposed second Mumbai-Pune expressway | About 113 km, access-controlled, Atal Setu and JNPA area to Shivare near Pune, connecting the proposed Pune Ring Road. Estimated ₹15,000 crore, designed for about three lakh vehicles a day, targeting a roughly 90-minute commute. NHAI. | Pre-DPR. Bids invited for the DPR and feasibility study, reported 26 May 2026. Nothing built. |
How the second expressway differs from the Missing Link
The Missing Link fixes a section of the existing expressway. The proposed second expressway would be an entirely separate road on a different alignment.
The Missing Link is 13.3 km long, replaces a 19 km ghat stretch, and by MSRDC's own account saves about 6 km and 20 to 25 minutes. It changes nothing about where the Mumbai-Pune Expressway starts or ends. It is a surgical improvement, and it is finished.
The proposed second expressway would be roughly 113 km, would begin at the Atal Setu and JNPA end rather than at the Mumbai end of the existing expressway, and would terminate at Shivare to meet a Pune Ring Road that is itself a separate project. Its purpose is not to improve the old road but to add a parallel one, and its stated 90-minute target only makes sense as a claim about a new alignment.
How it differs from the Pagote to Chowk highway
Pagote to Chowk is a 29.219 km link between the port and the existing expressway. It is not an alternative Mumbai-Pune route.
The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs approved it on 19 March 2025 at ₹4,500.62 crore, on a BOT (Toll) basis. It runs from JNPA and NH-348 at Pagote to Chowk on NH-48, connecting there to the Mumbai-Pune Expressway and to NH-66. Like the Missing Link, it includes two tunnels through the Sahyadris in place of a ghat section, which is one reason the two get confused.
Its logic is freight. JNPA is India's largest container port, and the road exists to give containers a controlled-access route to the national highway network without threading them through Panvel. Chowk sits on the Mumbai-Pune corridor immediately north-west of Khopoli, which is why the project appears in coverage of this stretch at all.
Note also that the second phase of the Virar-Alibaug Multimodal Corridor, a 29.9 km section from Balavali to Chowk, is planned to terminate at the same point. Chowk is becoming a junction of three separate schemes, only one of which has been built.
Why the corridor is attracting so many proposals
The demand case is not speculative, and it is worth stating separately from the road plans.
- Navi Mumbai International Airport is operating. It was inaugurated on 8 October 2025, began commercial domestic operations on 25 December 2025 and handled its first scheduled international flight on 15 July 2026. Its Phase 1 capacity is 20 million passengers a year.
- JNPA is at record throughput. The port handled 102 million tonnes and 8.17 million TEU in FY 2025-26, against 92.11 million tonnes and 7.30 million TEU the year before, and its own April to July FY 2026-27 data shows 2,994,861 TEU, up 14.37% year on year.
- The Western Dedicated Freight Corridor was completed on 31 March 2026, with the final JNPT to New Saphale section commissioned, per reporting citing DFCCIL.
- Atal Setu opened on 13 January 2024 per MMRDA, putting the JNPA and Panvel side of the harbour within a short drive of South Mumbai.
A new expressway starting at the Atal Setu and JNPA end rather than at Kalamboli is a direct response to that geography. Whether it gets built is a separate question.
What to watch, rather than what to believe
If you want to track whether the second expressway becomes real, these are the checkpoints in order.
- Award of the DPR and feasibility contract, and the consultant's name. Until this happens, the tender reported on 26 May 2026 is all there is.
- A published alignment. Until a corridor is drawn, no village, taluka or plot can honestly be described as being on the route.
- Cabinet or CCEA sanction with a cost. Compare it with the ₹15,000 crore estimate; a large gap is normal and informative.
- Land acquisition notifications in the Maharashtra Gazette for the affected villages.
- The contract award and its model, EPC, BOT, HAM or DBFOT. This tells you who carries the risk and how quickly work is likely to start.
Until at least the first three of those have happened, treat any claim that land is "on the new expressway" as unverifiable. Nobody knows where it goes yet, because that is precisely what the study being tendered is meant to determine.