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By:

Quaid Najmi

4 January 2025 at 3:26:24 pm

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...

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.

Silent Leviathans in Asia’s Deepening Undersea Rivalry

China’s march into autonomous undersea warfare is reshaping the Indo-Pacific and forcing India to respond in kind.

China is quietly transforming the ocean depths into a new theatre of strategic competition. Its rapid advances in unmanned and autonomous underwater vehicles (UUVs/AUVs) now extend to the development of so-called ‘extra-extra-large’ platforms - autonomous submarines longer than 40 metres, comparable in size to conventional diesel boats, yet unencumbered by human crews. Designed for long-endurance missions, these machines are intended to roam the Pacific, the Indian Ocean and, in theory, even the approaches to America’s west coast.


Operating without crews and often without clear attribution, such systems blur the line between surveillance and attack, peace and provocation. In contested waters, even their presence - detected or suspected - can impose caution, delay decision-making, and erode deterrence.


Steel Shadows

Intelligence assessments suggest that China is testing several of these XXLUUVs, including platforms such as the AJX-002, fitted with pump-jet propulsion and optimised for precise, low-noise operations. Freed from the constraints of life-support systems, such vessels can devote their internal volume to fuel, batteries, sensors and weapons. Ranges of more than 10,000 nautical miles are plausible, allowing them to loiter for weeks or months at a time.


Their mission set is expansive. They can lay mines, deploy smaller drones, conduct intelligence and surveillance, transport special-operations divers, or strike targets using torpedoes and missile systems launched from standard tubes. Communications can be maintained through satellites, buoys or long-range acoustic links, enabling remote supervision from shore or from surface vessels.

 

Past confrontations in the South China Sea, including territorial disputes with Vietnam, the Philippines, and Malaysia, highlight the strategic leverage that even a handful of advanced platforms can provide in contested waters.

 

Floating Docks

Recent trials around Hainan in the South China Sea underline the seriousness of the programme. Two new uncrewed submarines have reportedly been based near Sanya, China’s principal hub for nuclear submarines and aircraft carriers. Unlike earlier extra-large UUVs that were craned in and out of the water, the newest and biggest platforms are housed in dedicated floating docks. One such dock, Zhuan Yong Fu Chuan Wu 001 (built as recently as 2024) can sail to sea, deploy or recover UUVs, and shield them from prying eyes in congested ports.


The infrastructure supporting these systems is as telling as the platforms themselves. Purpose-built floating docks signal that China is planning for routine, sustained operations of autonomous submarines, not sporadic trials. This suggests a doctrinal shift in which unmanned systems are expected to operate alongside, and eventually ahead of, crewed naval assets.


By easing handling and reducing exposure during launch and recovery, these docks make routine operations of giant autonomous submarines far more practical. They also hint at an ambition to integrate such systems into regular naval deployments rather than treat them as experimental curiosities.


The strategic implications are unsettling. Low-risk, high-endurance undersea platforms could complicate American and allied naval dominance in the Pacific, threaten shipping lanes, and add a new layer of uncertainty to the Indian Ocean. An accelerated undersea arms race looks increasingly inevitable.


For regional navies, the challenge lies in detection rather than destruction. Autonomous submarines are quieter, harder to track, and politically less escalatory to deploy than manned vessels. Their proliferation could therefore lower the threshold for undersea competition, even as it raises the risks of miscalculation.


India is not standing still. Confronted by China’s expanding naval footprint and by Chinese-enabled Pakistani capabilities, the Indian Navy has pushed ahead with its own unmanned-systems agenda. In line with its broader Aatmanirbhar Bharat doctrine, the emphasis has shifted from imported solutions to indigenous design and production.


A flagship programme launched in 2024 aims to field a dozen extra-large UUVs for intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance, anti-submarine warfare and mine countermeasures, with prototypes expected within two to three years. The Defence Research and Development Organisation is also working on AI-driven underwater drone swarms and man-portable autonomous vehicles for mine clearance. Private firms, notably Larsen & Toubro, have expanded their role in meeting these requirements.


Alongside unmanned platforms, the navy is strengthening its broader undersea defences: commissioning Arnala-class shallow-water anti-submarine craft, fitting frontline ships with the Mareech advanced torpedo-defence system, and partnering with firms such as Sagar Defence Engineering on autonomous surface vessels and maritime robotics. A three-layered approach to maritime domain awareness - air, surface and underwater - is steadily taking shape.


Yet gaps remain. Critical sensors, subsystems and materials are still imported, leaving India dependent on foreign suppliers in some of the most sensitive technologies.


India’s task is thus not only technological but institutional. Integrating unmanned systems into fleet operations, doctrine and command structures will require a cultural shift within a navy long oriented towards crewed platforms. Closing those gaps will be essential if India is to counter China’s silent leviathans on equal terms.


(The author is a retired naval aviation officer and defence and geopolitical analyst. Views personal.) 


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