Massive traffic jam was witnessed on the Mumbai-Pune expressway as Mumbaikars get out of the town for enjoying long weekends.
Mumbaikars who had left for weekend destinations like Lonavla, Khandala and other hill stations had to grapple with traffic jam on the Mumbai-Pune expressway. Due to long weekend starting from Saturday onwards many people had made plans to visit hill stations and beaches in the state. However the journey was not smooth for city’s residents as there was massive traffic jam on the expressway. Many of them took to social networking sites for expressing their anger. Vehicles were moving at snail’s pace on the highway due to the presence of large number of vehicles. Rows and rows of vehicles stretched up to 15km between the Khandala ghat section and Khalapur on the Mumbai-Pune lane of the expressway. It was becoming difficult for traffic police to monitor traffic. On the other hand, less traffic was visible on the old Mumbai-Pune highway.
Manish Seth, who was towards Khandala said, “We had made our travel plans in advance taking into consideration the long weekend. Even some resorts had offered huge discounts to attract customers. However the massive traffic jams witnessed on the Mumbai-Pune expressway has played spoilsport.”
Urvesh Shah a Kandivali resident said, “Our vehicle was stuck for three to four hours on the expressway. If knew that traffic jam would occur on this route then I would have travelled by train as we could have covered the entire journey within three to four hours.”
Suresh Patil, who was along with group of college classmate said, “I think next time I would visit malls or watch movies at multiplex instead of spending so much time as my vehicle has been stuck on the highway. Maybe people should think about using public transportation as presence of cars is blocking the highway”
Archit Sen a Malad resident said, “More than half of my day has been wasted due to traffic jams. It took more than four hours for my vehicle to cover a distance of 10 to 15 kilometres. This traffic jam is not different from the one witnessed on Mumbai roads where vehicle crawls and people get late to reach their offices daily.”
Additional superintendent of police, Pune rural, Rajkumar Shinde said, “Despite deputing a huge staff to manage traffic, the situation remained chaotic due to a large number of vehicles,” he said. According to the officer, the expressway was normal between Lonavla and Pune.
The scenario was no different on the Mumbai-Nashik highway as traffic jam was witnessed on the Kasara Ghat section. The Pune-Satara highway, used to reach Mahabaleshwar, Panchgani as well as Goa, also saw massive traffic jams thanks to potholes and ‘work in progress’ sections.
