Hello,
@Rish! Welcome to the forum!
The distance between Mumbai and Pune is about 150 kilometres. Just like you said, this distance can be covered in about three hours, more or less. There are two routes that you can choose from to reach Pune from Mumbai. Here they are:
- Route No. 1 via Mumbai Pune Expressway - Mumbai > Navi Mumbai > Mumbai Pune Expressway > Somatane/Dehu Road > Pune.
This route is about 150 kilometres long or more, depending on where from Mumbai you come from. However, despite the distance, travel here is quite a breeze as it's well-maintained. It can take you as little as two hours to reach Pune if you utilise this route/expressway. Thus, it is the more preferred route by travellers to reach Pune from Mumbai.
From Mumbai to Navi Mumbai, road conditions are good. Just leave early to avoid the traffic in the main parts of the city. Aside from this issue, you won't encounter much problems with this stretch. The same goes from Navi Mumbai until the Mumbai Pune Expressway although traffic in this stretch is considerably lesser than the former.
From the Mumbai Pune Expressway to Dehu Road, you'd pass through several tunnels. Prepare your toll before reaching Khalapur. The expressway is smooth and wide. It has two main lanes, subdivided into three lanes for each side of the expressway. This six-lane expressway is smooth until the last leg of the journey. Not to mention that the views here are quite stunning, taking you around the peaks of the Sahyadri ranges.
As soon as you reach Dehu Road, you are greeted with different options. There's Pimpri-Chinchwad straight ahead, which is not recommended for day time travel due to the intense traffic in its surrounding cities. If you take the right side, you'd reach the Pune Bypass Road, which is a good choice to avoid the city traffic and from here, you can reach the other areas of Pune.
- Route No. 2 via NH4 - Mumbai > Navi Mumbai > Rasayani > Khalapur > Lonavala > Dehu Road > Pune.
This route is about 152 kilometres long which can take you around 3 hours or more to reach Pune. This is part of the Mumbai Chennai National Highway 4. The Mumbai Pune section of this highway is extremely prone to traffic and congestion, hence this route is not as preferred by many travellers. Before the construction of the Mumbai Pune Expressway though, this is the usual route taken by travellers to reach Pune from Mumbai.
The same goes from Mumbai to Navi Mumbai so you can just refer to the above post. We now go to Navi Mumbai until Lonavala, which as mentioned before, suffers from terrible congestion and traffic. If you must take this route, then do so during off-peak traffic hours. Practice extreme care when taking this stretch as accidents are prone to happen here as well. Just before you reach Lonavala, you'd pass Bor Ghat, which is a steep climb so be prepared for that.
Once you reach Dehu Road, you have the same options as above. If you choose Pimpri-Chinchwad, then be prepared for the traffic during day time. Otherwise, just take a right and choose the other way around as it has less traffic issues.
So out of these two routes, it's safer to choose the first one. The two routes have mainly good roads but the deciding factor is the amount of traffic which is quite high in the second route. I hope this helps you!
