Mumbai-Pune Expressway clogged over 24 hrs

Pune: The country’s oldest and first access-controlled Mumbai-Pune Expressway came to a grinding halt after a chemical tanker turned turtle on Tuesday evening – with thousands of vehicles stuck in traffic jams for over 24 hours – and the effects spilling over to the Old Highway No. 48 soon afterwards.

The vehicular snarl - described by locals as the worst-ever in the 26-year-old history of the critical thoroughfare linking the country’s commercial and cultural capitals – took the travellers and the authorities by complete surprise leading to delayed response measures.

According to officials, the speeding tanker, carrying a highly inflammable and hazardous Propylene Gas, skidded and overturned in the tricky ghat sections near Ardoshi Tunnel yesterday evening around 5 pm, and blocked the Pune-Mumbai arm completely.

Police teams rushed to the accident spot, cordoned off the accident site, blocked the Pune-Mumbai 3-lanes and attempted to salvage the tanker.

Later, as a precautionary measure even the vehicles plying on Mumbai-Pune arm was closed and it started the ‘grandmother of all traffic jams’, stranding thousands of regular commuters, tourists, and special cases.

As the traffic didn’t budge for hours, angry motorists spewed their ire on social media drawing the attention of the Highway Police, and other local police departments from Raigad and Pune, plus teams of the SDRF and NDRF were deployed to avert any untoward incidents.

On Wednesday, local television reports showed clips of the traffic tie-ups that extended more than 45-50 kms kms in both directions, many travellers had spilled onto the roads, enraged and exhausted due to the heat, many frantically searching for elusive food and water making it harrowing for the kids or the elderly people.

Commuters’ travails on expressway

Among the thousands trapped in the logjam of vehicles were a cancer patient from Latur who had to rush for medical treatment to Mumbai, many people rushing to catch international or domestic flights from either Mumbai or Pune.

There was at least one wedding party with the groom stuck in Mumbai and the bride stranded in Pune, plus many businessmen, tourists in luxury private buses, ST buses, senior citizens and kids in private cars or cabs and large commercial goods vehicles.

The curvy ghat section was the worst-hit where scores of vehicles had stopped and were parked awkwardly, leaving little space for manoeuvres and eyewitnesses said that many people were forced to relieve themselves on the roadside or in the bushes.

Several of the hungry and tired passengers, who spent the night sleeping in their vehicle seats, rued how their mobile batteries had died down, making it impossible to connect with anxious family members, and complained of total lack of information updates from the highway or police authorities.

As per latest reports by 7 pm, the police estimated that the overturned tanker would be shifted out before midnight after which normal plying of vehicles was expected.