Pune: Heading out of the city for an outing at Mahabaleshwar is a few hours away for most of the Punekars, but the road conditions especially during and after monsoon is what deters one. Your dream of a smooth ride to Mahabaleshwar will soon come true but you will have to wait another year for it.

The state government has approved Rs 388 crore for road widening project of Kapurvhol-Bhor-Mandhardevi-Wai-Suroor stretch of 58.8 kilometres in length, but this fund will be allocated in next financial year budget. Once the budget is allocated, work will start on this road project which will benefit tourists heading towards Pachgani-Mahabaleshwar and Konkan via Bhor-Mandhardevi-Wai route.

At present the Kapurvhol-Bhor-Mandhardevi-Wai-Suroor road stretch is only 5.5 metre (1.5 lane) wide. After widening, it will become 13 metre (3 lanes) in width. As a result, the time taken to travel by this route is estimated to come down by half.

The road passes through Bhor city and Wai city. In the city jurisdiction, the width of the road will be 12 metres. The Ambadkhind ghat section of Bhor-Mandhardevi will also be widened due to which the number of accidents will reduce. This road widening project will also help motorists to reach Konkan via Panchgani-Mahabaleshwar in less time.

Sangram Thope, MLA of Bhor constituency told media persons that the road project work has been proposed under the development scheme of Asian Bank. The budget will be allocated during the winter session at Nagpur.