The last weekend of this year proved to be rather trau matic for several commut ers traversing the arterial Mumbai-Pune Expressway route, with a profusion of traffic snarls being the first thing to greet them. Given that it was a long weekend for several working professionals, both the Expressway and routes to popular locations like Khandala and Lonavala were jammed for several hours due to the influx of vehicles -and, besides commuters, several local residents of the hill stations also faced severe hardships.
With Christmas falling on Friday, followed by holidays on Saturday and Sunday, hundreds of Mumbai residents had the same idea, choosing to head towards the outskirts or beyond to Pune, to spend some time away from the grind. Unfortunately, most mini-vacationers also chose to begin their journey early on Friday morning, leading to the maximum number of vehicles hitting the E-way around 7 am and resulting in severe jams.
According to highway police, traffic was normal in lanes from Pune to Mumbai, but lanes from Mumbai towards Pune were completely packed.
Assistant police inspector M Chalke of Khandala highway safety patrol told Mirror, “Travellers were mostly traveling from Mumbai towards Pune or headed to Lonavala, Khandala or Mahabaleshwar, resulting in a massive queue of vehicles over several kilometres. A bad jam was witnessed particularly from the Khalapur Toll Plaza to Amrutanjan Bridge in the ghat section. The flow remained constant throughout the day and despite the traffic situation, several more vehicles continued to come on to the E-way.“
Most vehicles on E-way were not large, but arrived in huge numbers, leading to all three lanes on the Mumbai-Pune side of the E-way being totally packed. “There were so many small vehicles that we had to stop the movement of heavy vehicles near Khalapur toll plaza in the afternoon and reserve the entire stretch for the smaller vehicles,“ added Chalke.
Frustrated commuters, meanwhile, stated that it took them more than six hours to complete the journey between Mumbai and Pune, which normally does not take more than 3.5 or 4 hours. Sharayu Diwan, one such traveller, said, “We started from Mumbai around 9 am and were expecting to reach Pune by 1 pm. However, it took us more than six hours; so, we only reached Pune around 3.30 pm.“
Traveller Dinesh Kulkarni said, “We were to visit Lonavala for a quiet weekend, but as we headed there, we were caught up in several snarls. So, we were forced to alter the plan and come back to Pune.“
LONAVALA TO GO TO ROOST POST 7 PM: COPS
Anticipating the influx of huge crowds in Lonavala over this weekend, as well as for new year’s celebrations, Lonavala police have deployed additional security and prohibited entry to popular spots like Tiger Point post 7 pm, till December 31. Inspector in charge of Lonavala police station, Ishwar Patil, said, “Along with forest department officials, we have decided to ban entry for visitors to Tiger Point after 7 pm to avoid any untoward incidents from occurring. We have also deployed additional security in the whole of Lonavala specially for the large number of tourists that will be headed to the hill station.“
Source : Pune Mirror
