Cultural capital "Pune"

Start Point : CBD Belapur, Navi Mumbai
26th June 2009 a very pleasant morning, i could see a cosy forthcoming weekend and also a trip to the cultural capital of Maharashtra. Yes your guess is right i am talking about Pune. By the time we organized ourself it was already noon time, hence decided to have the lunch and take a stroll on Mumbai Pune EXPRESSWAY. A wonder which has reduced the distance between Mumbai and Pune.


Checked the windscreen water level, engine oil level and tyre pressure. And we were on the highway at 13:15hrs. It as cloudy and pleasant as i peep out of window, on my left see a big board of Mcdonald which was 10kms from our start point.

As we enter expressway, the feel of road through the tyres of my car is ecstatic. I go down the memory lane few years back when this expressway had attracted lots of attention of environmentalists. It is true any human intervention in the natures creation has issues to be addressed. Development and Destruction seem to go hand in hand. I jerk out of my thoughts with the first sight of clouds kissing the sahyadri hills around 20 kms from CBD Belapur on my left side of the highway.

The first tunnel named BHATAN Tunnel came after 24.5 kms of drive, the tunnel is 1.1 kms long. Beautifully lit, still gives a feeling of blankness, as you enter, however before my feelings settle we emerge out of the tunnel in bright cloudy day on the highway. The speed limit is 80 kms/hr but vehicles zoom past us as if challenging us for a race. We did'nt get tempted and contuinued our journey when we encounter 2nd tunnel MADAP tunnel at 36.3 kms from CBD Belapur.

The is no free ride in this life, we realized this when we encountered 1st Toll at 44 kms from CBD Belapur. We took the receipt for Rs 140/- to Pune. This was the place from where lonavala was 19kms. This is a picturque getaway for most mumbaiites.

We did'nt take the exit to lonavala and zoomed on the serpentine road towards pune, the old mumbai pune highway keeps reminding us of its existence many times on the way. We saw the old highway crossing us at 90 degrees overhead at around 45kms from CBD Belapur.

While crossing Khandala Hills saw some of the monkeys enjoying the sight of expressway. They live here and we come there for some moments. The sight of highway was beautiful. Nicely maintained highway.



We checked up at 1st food mall to refill our coffee quota and tit bits. There is HP fuel pump for the vehicles needing to do the update on fuel.

Started our journey to pune crossing two more tunnels on the way and finally exited the expressway around 100kms from CBD. Then merged seamlessly into the crowd of Pune.

Our night happened at a friends place in Kalayani Nagar, near Koregaon Park, Pune.


Total Distance Travelled. 180 kms from CBD to Kalyani Nagar Pune.