Eway experiment to avoid jam proves useful

Test To Be Conducted Next Week As Well

The Highway Safety Patrol, Pune, authorities on Monday banned plying of heavy vehicles on the PuneMumbai stretch of the expressway between 7am and 10am to avoid usual traffic jams because of heavy movement of professionals in cars on the speed corridor on the week’s first working day.About 200 trucks and trai lers were stopped at Urse toll post and Kusgaon, both having parking space. No loaded vehicle was allowed to hit the expressway in those three hours.

The Highway Safety Pat rol (HSP), Pune, authorities termed the experiment successful. So did the additional director-general of police (traffic) R K Padmanabhan.“The Monday morning’s experiment has been successful because no traffic congestions were witnessed.“

The same experiment would be conducted next week because many professionals might not have travelled to Mumbai this Monday owing to long weekend.

Mumbai residents visi ting Lonavla, Khandala, Pune and Mahabaleshwar on weekends prefer to travel back home on Monday mornings. At the same time, many private and government officers, too, visit Mumbai on Monday to attend meetings. A large number of light motor vehicles remain stranded in the ghat section whenever a heavy vehicle breaks down or meets with an accident on Mondays.

The HSP authorities had experimented with the ban on the movement of heavy and overloaded vehicles heading towards Pune from Mumbai on Friday and Saturday . They were ordered to halt at Khalapur toll post on the expressway between 5pm and 10pm on Friday and between 7am and noon on Saturday . The outcome, an HSP authority said, was very encouraging.

Source : TOI