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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.

Warriors of Night

Updated: Oct 22, 2024

We name our daughters Durga, Lakshmi and Saraswati; we worship the divine feminine power in the temples but oppress, repress and even attack the feminine power amidst us. That is the irony in the way India sees its women.

After the safety of the daylight fades, women are seen as easy prey by the predators of the night.

We mark the nine nights of Navratri, the festival of the goddess, by celebrating the dedication and valour of nine real-life women who brave the challenges of the night to pursue their dreams.


Part - 4


Never felt unsafe

The singer says there has been a generational change over the last two decades

Never felt unsafe

Work has no timings for Aisha Sayed. Sometimes, she begins her studio recording at 12 AM and finishes by 5 AM; at other times, concerts and live shows start at 9 AM and she’s done by midnight. In her field of work as a performer and singer, Sayed is used to not getting a night’s sleep and often returning home when most of the city is set to wake up. “I have been travelling at night but I have never, ever, felt unsafe in Mumbai,” says the singer-performer who began her career at the age of 13 years. Her father spotted her talent for music and took her to meet a sound engineer who was their neighbour in Bandra. The family helped her get opportunities and from there, her career began.

Being among the top contenders in Indian Idol, season 3, in 2007 catapulted her to fame and it opened up a world of new performance opportunities across the country. “I was just 20 years then and I was travelling the world, performing at the most lavish weddings, staying at the most luxurious hotels and performing at big corporate gigs,” she says. Safety, while on work, is has never been an issue for her for the organizers arrange a security detail for the performers. “They escort us until we reach the room. And since we travel with our team in a big group, there is always safety in numbers,” says Sayed, who sings in 10 languages. Her peers have faced instances of audience members being rowdy. “Once in Delhi, a group of drunk men followed my colleague to her room and kept banging on her door late into the night. But I have been fortunate,” she says.

Work assignments have taken to varied places, from the most luxurious international destinations to far-off venues in the hinterland of India where she’s travelled through dark, dense forested areas. “I have driven through areas where the only light is that of your car’s headlights. Turn around and you see pitch darkness,” says Sayed. She’s always got a little prayer on her lips when travelling through these remote areas for miles together. She recalls a show in Chattisgarh where she had to travel for nine hours at a stretch through remote and forested areas. “No place in our country is as safe as Mumbai,” she stresses. She would know, considering her extensive travels. She advises women to travel in groups while in places that are unfamiliar or unknown and never to venture out at night alone. “Keep your family informed of your whereabouts,” she says.

While her agreements state that proper security at all times, Sayed says that she drives her own car if she’s out at night for parties or personal work but insists that the people of Mumbai are largely helpful and cooperative. A rickshaw driver who once drove to home in the wee hours of the night, after a recording, waited at her gate until the watchman let her in. Friends and colleagues have dropped her home several times.

Mumbai, she feels, has changed—and it’s for the better, in the past two decades. “Earlier, on buses and trains, men would use the crowd as an excuse to touch women inappropriately. That has gone down. There is a generational change that I see,” says Sayed. She used to take the BEST buses and trains to her training classes and for recordings in the early days of her career.

Her timings are inconsistent and her shows take her to various cities and towns. But the Mumbai-bred girl emphasizes that her city is very safe for women, despite the various incidents of violence. “Mumbai is the only place where a woman can wear what she wants, wear bright red lipstick, leave her hair open and look glamorous and still be safe.”

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