The Chief Minister's Office of Maharashtra announced on Saturday, 18 July 2026 that National Highway 753F will be developed under the Pune-Shirur Elevated Expressway Project, upgrading approximately 54 kilometres of corridor using state-of-the-art construction methods to dramatically cut travel times between Pune and Shirur.

What the project entails

According to the CMO's post, the project's centrepiece is a 6-lane elevated highway stretching 31 kilometres, designed to carry high-speed through-traffic above ground level. Running parallel to it will be a 4-lane service road dedicated to local traffic, ensuring that commuters accessing roadside areas are not forced onto the main carriageway. The CMO stated that the project will reduce the Pune-Shirur travel time to 45–50 minutes, a significant improvement over current congested conditions on the route.

A notable forward-looking element is a provision within the first 7 kilometres of the corridor for a future metro rail alignment. By building this reservation into the elevated structure now, the project avoids costly retrofitting later and signals an intent to integrate road and rail in one multimodal spine.

Context

Pune is Maharashtra's second-largest urban agglomeration and faces severe traffic pressure on arterial routes leading to its eastern districts, of which the Shirur corridor is among the most strained. NH 753F connects Pune's urban core with Shirur in Pune district, passing through densely populated and industrially active zones. The route carries a heavy mix of inter-city vehicles, freight, and daily commuters, making grade-separation a long-standing demand from residents and industry alike.

Policy backdrop

The project fits within India's broader highway modernisation drive, anchored nationally by the Bharatmala Pariyojana programme approved in 2015, which prioritised economic corridors and ring roads across states including Maharashtra. Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, who has consistently positioned road connectivity as a pillar of his administration's infrastructure agenda, tagged Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the post, underscoring the central-state coordination that characterises large national highway upgrades. Such projects typically involve the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) for funding and oversight alongside state execution agencies.

Maharashtra has seen a pattern of elevated-corridor proposals on congested urban-fringe highways, with the dual-deck or elevated-plus-service-road model increasingly favoured to separate traffic streams without requiring prohibitively wide land acquisition.

Stakeholders and impact

The most direct beneficiaries are the daily commuters — estimated to be in the hundreds of thousands — who travel between Pune and Shirur for work, commerce, and education. Local traffic users along the corridor stand to gain from the dedicated 4-lane parallel road, which should prevent the elevated highway from bypassing roadside businesses and settlements entirely. Freight operators and logistics firms serving Pune's industrial hinterland are also expected to benefit from reduced transit times and more predictable journey durations.

The metro provision in the initial 7-kilometre section could, if realised, extend Pune's expanding metro network eastward, with long-term implications for land use and real-estate development along the alignment.

What's next

The CMO's announcement frames this as a detailed project disclosure rather than a foundation-stone laying or contract award, suggesting the project is in an advanced planning or pre-tender stage. Watchers will look for formal tender issuance by NHAI or the state public works department, land acquisition notifications, and inclusion of funding allocations in upcoming state budget cycles. The tagging of PM Modi in the official post may also signal that a central government announcement or joint inauguration is being planned.