08 December,2025 05:30 PM IST | Mumbai | Ranjeet Jadhav
The bridge is expected to be completed in 2026. Pic/Afcons
Over 360 years after Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj outsmarted the Mughal army at the Battle of Umbarkhind, engineers are now battling in the same Sahyadri mountains of Maharashtra -- against nature, while building India's highest road cable-stayed bridge on the Mumbai-Pune Expressway.
Near Chaavani village in Khalapur, Raigad, where Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj and his force once defeated 30,000 Mughal soldiers, engineers from Afcons Infrastructure are constructing a bridge that will rise 132 metres above the ground as part of the Mumbai-Pune Expressway Missing Link Project. The bridge is expected to be completed in 2026.
Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj and his force once defeated 30,000 Mughal soldiers. Pic/Afcons
Once operational, the project will bypass the busy Khandala Ghat section, reduce the expressway distance by over 6 km, and cut travel time by more than 25 minutes for nearly 1.5 lakh commuters every day, officials said.
The Sahyadris are known for steep ridges, sudden gusts of 100 km/h winds, heavy monsoon rains, dense fog and narrow ledges that make heavy construction extremely difficult. Engineers and workers operate at dangerous heights, using world-class safety systems and precision techniques, they said.
According to an official statement, the project is divided into two packages. Package I includes two eight-lane tunnels of 1.75 km and 8.92 km. Package II consists of two major viaducts -- 850 metres and 650 metres long -- plus widening of a 5.86 km stretch of the expressway and over 10 km of approach and slip roads.
Afcons is executing Package II, which includes the 650-metre cable-stayed viaduct featuring India's tallest road bridge pylons at 182 metres--even taller than the Bandra-Worli Sea Link pylons, it said, adding that the construction involves a self-climbing shuttering system for the giant pylons and four tower cranes working at 182 metres, along with eight 350-ton cantilever form travellers that build the deck segment by segment over a deep valley.
The new bridge will stand where history was once written -- turning the mountains into a symbol of modern India's engineering strength, the statement said.
