Pune: The Khambatki ghat tunnel, aimed at reducing accidents on the Pune-Satara highway, will be ready and operational by June, senior NHAI officials said.The left side of the new tunnel opened to traffic on a trial basis from Jan 17. “The project will reduce travel time through the ghat from around 45 minutes to just 7 minutes. The package includes a 1.3 km tunnel and a 1.2 km viaduct,” Union minister for road transport and highways Nitin Gadkari said in a post on X.Sanjay Kadam, project director of Pune NHAI, told TOI that the trial run will continue till Jan 27. “During this time, we will clear some of the obstructions present to construct the right side of the tunnel. Both sides of the tunnel will be ready and open to traffic by June. This tunnel is important as, apart from reducing travel time, it will also reduce the accidents that happen in the old tunnel, which has some major black spots,” Kadam said.Khambatki ghat is notorious for the dangerous curves and steep gradients on the road and is witness to many road accidents. In Dec, four people were injured after a lorry collided with three cars. Plans to curtail the sharp turns on the ghat have been discussed since 2018, when 18 people died and 19 injured in a major accident. The project, which was approved in 2019, was to be completed in three years, but ran into delays. The left side of the tunnel is approximately 1.3km long, while the right side is roughly 1.2km long. “All kinds of vehicles can now access the left side of the tunnel. Some traffic is also being diverted carefully so that work on the right side is not hampered,” Kadam said.Regular commuters said that they were waiting for the new tunnel to open. “The ghat is very risky with a lot of sharp turns. Some of them are S-shaped turns, and driving becomes a major problem, resulting in accidents too. This tunnel is a lifesaver, and NHAI should try to open it without much delay,” Sanjay Kamat, who regularly uses the highway, said.The tunnel was proposed in 2018 followed the accident involving the tempo near the old tunnel. The tunnel and a viaduct were planned to avoid the steep gradient and the S-bend, which were seen as the cause of major accidents. The S-bend is responsible for an estimated average of 30 accidents a year. Between 2008 and 2017, this stretch of NH-48 (previously NH-4) reportedly claimed over 75 lives, TOI had earlier reported.
