If you are driving on Mumbai-Pune Expressway from Sunday onwards, make sure to follow all the traffic rules or you are most likely to be prosecuted. In a first ever joint action of all the agencies connected with the expressway, massive drive will be undertaken from Sunday where action for over speeding, lane cutting, driving without use of seat belt and illegal halting will be taken across the 94 km long expressway.
It will be for the first time ever that the teams of highway police's Pune and Thane divisions, Pune rural police, Pimpri Chinchwad police commissionerate, Raigad police and Navi Mumbai police will be carrying out the drive together as some part of the expressway falls under their jurisdiction. The decision of the drive was taken in a meeting which was held on Saturday where representatives of all these agencies were present.
The meeting was called after the Supreme Court-appointed panel on road safety headed by retired SC judge KS Radhakrishnan expressed disappointment over the efforts taken by the Maharashtra government to reduce the number of road accidents.
Speaking about the decisions taken in the meeting, Amol Tambe, superintendent of police (highway) of Pune division who headed the meeting told DNA, "We discussed some short-term measures and some long-term measures to reduce the number of accidents. As a part of the short term measures, we have decided to undertake a drive involving all the agencies which are connected with the expressway."
"Earlier these agencies would take action against the errant drivers but the action was limited as they were working in isolation. However, for the first time, all the agencies will come together and we will be carrying out the drive till December end where we will be aiming at enforcement," Tambe added.
In the meeting, these agencies have identified four major reasons for the fatal road mishaps. "Along with imposing fines, this time we will also be registering cases against the errant motorists," Tambe said. He added that the drive will kick off from Sunday and it will go on till December 31.
