Stranded honcho takes ‘wings’ to Pune

Mumbai | Pune: When lakhs of travellers either baked or froze in their vehicles during the massive 33-hour long traffic snarls on the prestigious Mumbai-Pune Expressway, a Pune businessman was all ‘cool’.

Dr. Sudhir Mehta, Chairman of Pinnacle Industries Ltd, Pune, was stuck in the traffic chaos at the Mumbai end for over eight hours and finally decided to ‘rise’ out of it, literally, in a chopper.

He somehow managed to reach the Juhu Aerodrome at Vile Parle, hired a helicopter and reached Pune early on Wednesday. He reported his victory flight in a social media post in detail, and also shot out an earful for the authorities.

Dr. Mehta described his ordeal, as experienced by many thousands, vividly – a snaky ribbon of concrete turned into a massive 100-kms plus long parking lot, wrong-side driving and breaking rules was the norm, with the expressway reduced to a lawless crawl.

A Mumbai commuter revealed how even some suited-booted elites turned into roadside rowdies and were seen hurling the choices abuses at the officialdom, to vent their frustration as many missed medical appointments or national-international flights from either city.

Though officially just an innocuous ‘one gas tanker’ accident near the lush Western Ghats in the Pune-Raigad sector, the fallout exposed the fragility and vulnerability of India’s booming infrastructure projects or how they can simply collapse in such emergencies.

However, as his friend Nitin Welde, a consultant for helicopters in civil aviation, said, it was not a Bollywood-style heroic rescue or a dramatic airlift of Dr. Mehta from the expressway.

Dr. Mehta, whose company is the promoter of EKA, automotive and tech company, reached the Juhu Aerodrome and boarded the chopper like any other chartered passenger – debunking the tales telecast by some television channels – said Welde.

The authorities also got a piece of Dr. Mehta’s mind: “Lakhs of people are stuck on the expressway for the last 18 hours for ‘one gas tanker ‘. For such emergencies we need to plan exits at different points on the expressway which can be opened to allow vehicles to return. Helipads cost less than Rs 10 lakhs to make and require less than one acre of open area. These need to be mandatory at various points near the expressway for emergency evacuation.”

Touching a chord as many thousands lost an entire working day when India’s A-listers could quietly explore an escape route – through the skies – if it was available, particularly for those in dire straits.

A couple of days before, Dr. Mehta had called out to India’s overstretched civil aviation sector, and argued strongly on the need for more airlines, better service, and faster response times.

“The current airlines are woefully inadequate and the quality of service and response time is getting worse by the day. Travelling is inevitable - confusion & hubris isn’t,” declared Dr. Mehta who chucked horse-power for a helicopter.

Mumbai-Pune Expressway unclogs after 33 hrs

The unprecedented and longest ever traffic jam that choked the Mumbai-Pune Expressway finally cleared by Thursday noon and vehicular traffic started zooming back on India’s first access-controlled thoroughfare, officials said.

The expressway that was paralysed from Tuesday evening - when a speeding tanker filled with the deadly propylene gas tanker turned turtle near the Aroshi Tunnel – came back to life as sedans, SUVs, jeeps, tempos, ST and private passenger buses, trucks and tankers slowly started moving shortly after dawn in both directions.

The traffic movement became possible after the authorities managed to shift the leaking gas tanker from the main highway lanes with the help of experts from oil companies before it was declared safe to resume operations on the 94.50 kms long expressway.

Several thousand people including tourists, regular commuters, patients, elderly and kids had to suffer the ordeal for over one full day. Many had no food or water, mobile batteries had drained off, some even exhausted their fuel to critical levels as they kept the vehicle air-conditioners on for hours to beat the daytime heat.

A police official confirmed that by Thursday evening, most of the worst-hit spots were cleared of the traffic logjam and vehicles were moving nearly as normal to and from Mumbai-Pune.