Mumbai–Nashik Expressway
Mumbai–Nashik Expressway
Also known as NH 160 (Mumbai–Nashik section) and Mumbai–Agra Road (old NH 3)
168 km
Open
Maharashtra
Expressway
Route
Mumbai–Nashik Expressway runs 168 km from Panchavati, Maharashtra to Naupada, Maharashtra.
Crosses Maharashtra.
Through Panchavati, Nashik, Ghoti, Igatpuri, Kasara, Shahapur, Thane and Naupada.
Why it matters
This is the road between Mumbai and the industrial city of Nashik, and it doubles as Mumbai's way out to the north-east — towards Shirdi, Aurangabad and, historically, Agra. It carries a constant stream of freight between Nashik's factories and Mumbai's ports.
History
The road from Mumbai up to Nashik is the old Mumbai–Agra highway, and it climbs the Western Ghats through the Kasara and Igatpuri ghats. It has been widened in stages into a six-lane, partly access-controlled highway to handle the enormous traffic between Mumbai, Thane and Nashik — freight from the ports, pilgrims heading to Trimbakeshwar and Shirdi, and Mumbai families driving up to the hills at Igatpuri for the monsoon. The steep ghat section is the hardest part of the route: it is where the road slows to a crawl behind heavy trucks and where landslides close lanes in heavy rain.
Good to know
- It climbs the Western Ghats through the Kasara ghat, one of the steepest highway climbs near Mumbai.
- The route follows what used to be National Highway 3, the Mumbai–Agra road.
- It is the main road for pilgrims travelling from Mumbai to Shirdi, Trimbakeshwar and Nashik.
- Nashik's vineyards and Igatpuri's monsoon hills draw heavy weekend traffic from Mumbai onto it.
- It meets the Samruddhi Mahamarg near Nashik, which now carries long-distance Nagpur traffic away from it.
On the road
Allow three to four hours from Mumbai to Nashik, and much longer on a festival weekend. The Kasara ghat is the bottleneck — heavy rain brings landslips and slow-moving trucks, and the climb is best avoided after dark in the monsoon.
More details
- Lanes
- 4–6 lanes, with ghat sections through the Western Ghats