Class I CH3OH Maser Emission from Bar-Driven Inflow Colliding with the Central Molecular Zone

The Central Molecular Zone of the Milky Way is shaped by the interplay of bar-driven inflows, shocks, and star formation. At Galactic longitude l=1.3, gas inflowing along the near-side dust lane has been proposed to interact with the CMZ boundary and overshoot above the Galactic plane, making this a key site to investigate how large-scale gas dynamics regulates star formation. We aim to investigate the presence of Class I methanol maser emission in this transitional region, testing whether large-scale gas interactions in the CMZ can trigger widespread maser activity via star formation or shocks. We conducted a dedicated search for the 36.2 and 44.1 GHz Class I CH3OH maser lines, along with the 48.4 GHz thermal transition, using the Yebes 40m telescope. We complemented these data with archival data from the Herschel-HiGAL survey and the CHIMPS2 survey to explore links between masers, shocks, and star formation. We detect widespread 36.2 GHz maser emission and two candidate 44.1 GHz masers in a region extending several parsecs. The brightest maser has an isotropic luminosity 0.9x10^-3 L_Sun, placing it among the most luminous Galactic Class I masers. Thermal CH3OH and SiO emission extend over mapped area of 24 pc, with both species showing enhanced fractional abundances. CO position-velocity analysis further shows that the masers are associated with an extended velocity feature at VLSR~100 km/s. We conclude that the observed masers are primarily associated with shock-processed gas in a kinematically complex bar-CMZ interface region. Large-scale gas interactions are likely to play an important role in producing the maser emission, although a subset of the masers may also be linked to shocks driven by local star-formation activity. This region therefore provides a promising Galactic analogue of shock-dominated Class I CH3OH maser environments observed in nuclear regions of barred galaxies.