[2][3] The expressway, which was fully operationalized in 2002, introduced new levels of speed and safety in automobile transportation to Indian roads.

[5] The expressway starts at Kalamboli in Raigad District's Navi Mumbai and ends at Kiwale in Pune.

[6] The expressway has reduced the travel time from Kalamboli in Raigad, near Mumbai to Kiwale in Pune to about two hours.

Due to the winding route taken as the road climbs up the hills, traffic congestion occurs on that part of expressway where NH 48 merges.

This will allow traffic to bypass the hill (ghat) section, reducing the distance by about 6 km and travel time by an estimated 25 minutes.

[9] The government of Maharashtra appointed RITES in 1990 to carry out feasibility studies for the new expressway to be operated on toll basis.

The government of Maharashtra entrusted the work of the construction of the expressway to MSRDC in March 1997 on Build-Operate-Transfer basis with permission to collect toll for 30 years.

[10] This six-lane project was completed under the stewardship of the Maharashtra State Road Development Corporation (MSRDC).

[6][7] The entire length of expressway has a single layer of barbed wire fencing to keep out stray animals.

[11] Eventually, in 2009, the then ruling coalition (INC, NCP) named the expressway after the first Chief Minister of Maharashtra, Yashavantrao Chavan, who was a member of the Congress.

[14] The toll collection data is kept as secret as per the RTI inquiry raised by activist Vivek Velankar.

The expressway contract with the Ideal Road Builders (IRB) has been uploaded but the toll collection details are not there.

[29] On 13 June 2023, an oil tanker overturned on the Mumbai-Pune expressway and rammed against a divider on a bridge near Lonavala which went up in flames on impact, killing the driver and other three people and three were injured.