If you drive a tempo, pickup van or any other goods vehicle between Pune and Mumbai, the Khandala ghat remains your only route. The state traffic police signed a notification on October 26 that makes the goods-vehicle ban on the expressway’s Missing Link permanent from November 1, and that also fixes speed limits for the cars and buses allowed on it.
Additional Director General of Police (Traffic) Pravin Salunke signed the order, which applies “until further orders”, Punekar News reported from Lonavala. The Pune region of the Maharashtra Highway Police followed it with a press release asking motorists to check whether their vehicle qualifies before they turn off at Khopoli or Kusgaon.
Who may use the 13.3 km Khopoli-Kusgaon stretch
The Missing Link opened on May 1, 2026. It runs 13.3 km between Khopoli and Kusgaon through long tunnels and over a high bridge, skipping the winding ghat. According to the Free Press Journal, it cuts about 6 km off the trip and saves 20 to 30 minutes. From November 1 the rules split traffic like this:
- Allowed: private cars, jeeps and other non-transport light motor vehicles, plus passenger buses and other passenger vehicles.
- Barred: every goods-carrying vehicle, down to small pickups such as the Tata Ace.
- Barred: any vehicle carrying flammable, explosive or other hazardous material. The order cites Union road transport ministry guidelines and tunnel safety protocols for this one.
Barred vehicles must stay on the old expressway alignment through the ghat.
Six months of trial ended in a permanent ban
Goods vehicles have been kept off the stretch since it opened, but officials had called the first six months a trial and hinted the rule could change after that. Truck operators who hoped for a relaxation now have their answer. The notification gives road design, technical considerations and passenger safety inside the tunnels as reasons, and Punekar News says police held discussions with stakeholders before deciding.
Enforcement has lagged behind the rule. In August, The Bridge Chronicle found heavy vehicles still entering the link, especially at night, and Khandala police said they had acted against 621 vehicles in roughly ten weeks. That month an SUV ran into the back of a goods tempo inside a Missing Link tunnel and a Wakad entrepreneur died; police examined whether the tempo had entered illegally. The Free Press Journal also lists an October 6 collision between a truck and a private luxury bus that seriously injured five passengers. The Highway Safety Patrol said in October that it would book truck and container drivers who break the restriction.
How the 5% speed margin works
Cars and other light motor vehicles may now go up to 100 kmph on the link; passenger buses and other passenger vehicles up to 80 kmph. The notification lets police skip action under Section 183 of the Motor Vehicles Act when a camera records a speed within 5% of the limit. In practice, a car clocked at up to 105 kmph or a bus at up to 84 kmph should not draw a speeding case, though the posted limits stay at 100 and 80. The Maharashtra State Road Development Corporation has to put up speed-limit boards along the route.
Small transport operators between the two cities will keep driving the extra 6 km of ghat on every loaded trip, and keep losing the 20 to 30 minutes that car drivers now save.
Sources: Punekar News, Free Press Journal, The Bridge Chronicle
This report was written with AI assistance from the publicly reported sources linked here; each fact was cross-checked against at least two of them.