The Mumbai-Pune Expressway seems to have become a death trap for motorists. Since 2009, more than 370 people have died and 697 others have been injured in 1,457 road mishaps on the Expressway.
Most of the accidents on the e-way have occurred because of speeding, rash driving and tyre-bursts.
To cut down the risk for speeding motorists, the Union Ministry of Roads and Surface Transport and the State Road Development Corporation are working on a plan to widen the expressway and change the alignment through Bhore Ghat to accommodate more vehicles.
Three weeks ago, the Maharashtra State Road Development Corporation (MSRDC) conducted an experiment on the expressway and found that no matter how fast a motorist drove on the stretch, he would not save beyond nine minutes of travelling time.
“Last year, the highway police installed electronic display unit boards connected with real-time information so that motorists would be warned about any disruptions or problems on the expressway,” said a senior traffic department official.
These boards were connected to the centralised highway control room so that they could be updated on a real-time basis.
The 93-km-long Mumbai-Pune Expressway, officially the Yashwantrao Chavan Expressway, is India’s first six-lane concrete, high-speed, access controlled tolled expressway connecting the two cities.
It two entry points are at Kalamboli, near Panvel, and Dehu Road, near Pune.
The expressway has reduced the travel time between the two cities to approximately two hours, replacing the old Mumbai-Pune stretch of the Mumbai-Chennai national highway (NH-4), which had become extremely congested and accident-prone.
