Overview
- The 13.3 km link, inaugurated Friday, opened both carriageways by Saturday after post-ceremony cleanup, bypasses the ghat section, and trims trips by roughly 25–30 minutes.
- Only light motor vehicles and passenger buses can use the new stretch, with heavy goods vehicles under review and hazardous-material carriers still barred.
- MSRDC put the corridor under round-the-clock CCTV with a dedicated control room and warned that stopping for photos on the bridge or in tunnels will draw penalties.
- Highway police set tunnel speeds at 100 km/h for cars and 80 km/h for buses and began issuing fines, with one driver posting a ₹500 e-challan after a brief halt.
- Mapping updates are lagging, with a viral video showing Google Maps failing to plot the new route even as the drive time dropped by about half an hour.